Best Of Friends: Sister and Brother
by Liza Jane
Summary: Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo are in their junior year of high school when they meet Ellie. First, everyone thinks she is just a misfit and outcast. But they later learn something about her that seperates her from everyone in the school. UPDATED!
1. First Day

Just so you know...I do not own most of these characters. I do not get payed for writing this.   
  
  
Lizzie and Miranda walked through the doors to Meadow Brook High on their first day of their junior year in high school. Everyone in the halls were excited about school starting back up, but at the same time a little bit upset since school put an end to the midnight beach parties and the all day sleeping.   
Both the girls went and arranged their lockers and then headed to their first period class as the first bell rang.   
They slid into two seats in the far left corner of the room and watched their old friends start to come into the room.   
"Oh my gosh! There's Ethan and Mark." Lizzie squealed to Miranda.   
About five seconds later, Ethan Craft and Mark Green came into the classroom and took seats in the back of the class. Lizzie still had a crush on Ethan, but Miranda had moved on to Ethan's best friend Mark. Mark had been a transfer student in the middle of their Freshman year, and Miranda fell for him the moment she saw him.  
"Hey Ethan!" An voice called out. Lizzie expected to see Kate Sanders or Claire Miller at the door, but it was indeed someone very different. It was a girl with honey blonde hair that was pulled into a high ponytail and it looked like she had blue eyes, but it was covered by black eye liner and sparkley purple eye shadow. She had on a short black shirt, with fishnet tights and knee high boots. Her shirt was a tight black tank top with a purple lepord screen shirt over it. Lizzie instantly thought it was Kate's cousin or something.   
"Who is that?" Miranda asked her friend.   
"I don't know. I'm guessing she is one of Kate's friends." Lizzie said. "Lets listen in on this conversation though." Her and Miranda then tried to listen to what the new girl was telling Ethan.   
"What is it now Ellie?" He asked in an annoyed tone.   
She went over and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Next time you want to ride to school with Mark, at least tell me so I'm not waiting for your sorry ass for twenty minutes."   
"Sorry, it won't happen again." Ethan said in a low voice. "Go sit down somewhere."  
The girl glared at him as he gave her a confused look. "You are impossible." She then turned and sat down in the seat right next to Lizzie.  
The final bell then rang and Mr. Bell, their English teacher came in and began class. The class did not last that long since all they were doing was going over classroom rules and everything. The bell to go to second period finally rang and that when Lizzie and Miranda parted ways. Lizzie went to history class, while Miranda went to her Spanish class.   
"Hey Lizzie." She heard someone say. Lizzie then turned around to see her good friend David "Gordo" Gordon.   
"Hey. How are you doing?" Lizzie asked as they began to walk down the hallway together.   
"Pretty good." Gordo said. "What class do you have next?"  
"World history." Lizzie said.   
"Cool, me too." Gordo said. "I was afriad I wouldn't have any classes with you this year."  
"Well, I guess you can stop worrying." Lizzie smiled as she and her friend walked into their second period class.   
  
Later at lunch, Lizzie again met up with Miranda and Gordo as they sat outside to eat their lunch.   
"So, have you met the new girl?" Miranda asked the two of them.   
"She's in my pre-calculus class. But I have not talked to her." Gordo said.  
"Yeah, same here. She's in two of my classes though." Lizzie said taking a sip of her drink. "You got anything good on her?"  
"Well, her name is Ellen, but she prefers Ellie. And she has been homeschooled the last seven years." Miranda told them. "She just moved here from Texas."  
"Why was she homeschooled?" Lizzie asked.  
"I don't know, but she is really smart." Miranda said. "She is a little scary looking though."  
"She looks like a gothic Britney Spears." Lizzie said not knowing that Ellie was passing by. She knew from the look on Miranda's face.   
"Hey, thanks doll." Lizzie heard her say as she slowly turned around.  
"Oh, sorry...I didn't mean I don't like your clothes..." Lizzie stammered.   
Ellie smiled. "Don't worry about it girl." She said. "You're Lizzie aren't you?"  
Lizzie nodded. "Yeah, how did you know?"  
"I've heard about you a lot." Ellie said. "Yeah, by the way, I'm Ellie."  
Lizzie shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."  
Ellie then looked up. "I have already met Miranda and..." She looked at Gordo. "I don't know you."  
"I'm David...But everyone calls me Gordo." He told her.   
"Aren't you in my pre-cal class?" She asked him.  
"Yeah, I am." Gordo said.  
"Cool." Ellie said. "Well, see you all around." She then walked away from their table.  
"She seems nice." Lizzie said once she left.   
"Yeah." Miranda said. "I thought she would smack you for saying that about her."  
"Maybe we can talk to her later." Lizzie said as the bell rang. "I wonder what she means by, 'shes heard of me'."  
  
At the end of the day, Ellie searched the halls for her brother, Ethan. She finally found him outside talking to a tall blonde girl.  
"Hey Ethan." Ellie yelled at him. She then walked over to him getting eyed by the girl he was talking with. She looked at the girl. "Sorry Barbie, I need to talk to him for a minute." She pulled Ethan to the side. "Are you coming home with me or what?"  
"Yeah, just give me a second." Ethan said. He then turned back to the girl he was talking with.   
"Ethan, who is that?" The girl asked pointing behind him.   
Ethan looked at got mad at her. "What are you doing?" He sounded mad.   
"I'm not waiting in the car while you talk to her." She said.  
"Ethan!" The girl screeched.   
Ethan shook his head. "Sorry Kate, I'll call you later, alright?"  
"Fine." The girl rolled her eyes.  
Ethan and Ellie got into Ellie's red xtrera moments later.   
"Why did you do that?" Ethan asked. "You have embarrassed me like fifty times today. What gives?"  
"Hey, listen...You're my twin brother and all and I like being home again." She said as she then started the car and pulled out of the parking space. "But, I have never gone to a real school before. You did not exactly make it easier for me this morning when you blew me off for that blonde girl."  
"Ellie, listen...I know its hard for you, but we have two different lives." Ethan told her. "And that blonde was my girlfriend, you know...Kate Sanders."  
"Oh, excuse me." Ellie said. "Listen, heres the deal...I won't embarrass you anymore if you do not blow me off for your girlfriend or your other friends anymore, alright?"  
"Alright. I can live with that." Ethan said.   
They drove home in silence the rest of the way. Finally, Ellie dropped Ethan off at home. She ran inside to get her sports bag and then quickly left again.  
"I wish I was still in Texas." She said to herself and she got back into her car.   
  
  
  
~Please review this story. Is it totally stupid? Or should I go on? 


	2. Not Meant To Get Along

Thanks for the review! Keep them coming!  
  
Hey, few quick notes: The year is currently 2005 (in the story that is), this pattern (~*~*~*~) means that it is the same scene from someone elses view. I also do not own any characters from Lizzie McGuire. I only make-up people as I go along. Please review my story...It gets very interesting later...I promise.  
  
  
Lizzie and Miranda sat in Lizzie's room while reading the lastest Teen People magazine later that day.   
"Lizzie!" Her brother Matt said as he almost broke her door down. "Guess what?"  
Lizzie angrily looked at her brother. "Matt! You are almost fourteen now. I should think you would know how to knock!" She yelled.   
Matt's look of happiness suddenly faded. "Sorry Lizzie. I'll leave you alone." He then turned and left his sisters room.   
"Lizzie, why are you so mean to your brother sometimes?" Miranda asked.   
Lizzie sighed. "Only when he does stuff like that." She then repositioned herself on her bed.   
"Lizzie, I know that you and Matt get along pretty well. Especially when you compare it to like four years ago." Miranda told her. "I really think you two should start to hang out more."  
"Why would I do that?" Lizzie asked.   
"Because, I heard that other than your mom...Your best friend in like will be your siblings." Miranda told her.   
"Yeah right, me and Matt best friends." Lizzie chuckled. "Thats a laugh."  
  
Ellie woke up extra early the next morning to take a morning run around the neighborhood which was about five miles long. Ellie had always done things like this to stay in shape. She finally got back to her house and took a shower and got completely ready for school. Her look scared her. She had on tight, blue camo pants on with a black tank top on and her black doc martins. She once again had her hair in a ponytail and her eyes were heavily covered with black eye liner and eye shadow. When she lived in Texas she actually wore colors, then when she moved back home, she bought a whole new wardore. Her attitude also changed. She had always gotten along with Ethan when they saw each other like over holidays and stuff, but now she could not go a day without yelling at him, and she had only been back about a month.  
"I hate living here. I don't even know why." Ellie thought to herself as she laced up her shoes. She sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. She then left her room and walked down the hall to her brother's room.   
"Ethan!" Ellie pounded on his door. "Are you awake?" There was no answer so Ellie opened his door and went in. She saw her brother sound asleep in his bed even though it was only half hour before school started. She then shook his shoulder.  
"Just five more minutes mom." Ethan said sleepily and then rolled over and put the covers over his head.  
"Oh no!" Ellie pulled his covers off completely and he sat up. "Get up!"  
"Ellie! I'm tried. Being late to school is no problem." Ethan told her as he rubbed his eyes. "Let me sleep five more minutes."  
"Ethan! I have been up for the last two hours." Ellie informed him. "Get your ass up out of bed."  
"Fine." Ethan finally gave up. Although he barely knew his sister, he could still tell what she was thinking. The whole ESP thing that twins had.   
"If you hurry we can stop by Starbucks before we go to school." Ellie told him.   
Ethan perked up. "Really?"  
"Only if you are ready in ten minutes." Ellie told him.   
"Alright then." Ethan said as Ellie left the room. "I wonder why she hates me so much." He said to himself once she closed the door.   
  
Later that day at lunch, Ethan sat with all his friends. The girls normally gossiped as the guys sat there talking about upcoming events.   
"So, what about that new girl, Ellie." Mary White said. Mary was short and had green eyes and dark brown hair. She was also co-captain of the cheerleading squad. "She is a total freak."  
Ethan suddenly heard Mary say something about Ellie. "Why would you say that?" He asked. "She just has a different style."  
"Why are you standing up for that loser?" Kate asked.   
Ethan did not want to tell them she was his sister. "Because, she is not that bad, once you get to know her." Ethan said. "Plus, it is stupid to just think someone is a freak because of the way they dress. What if..." He noticed he had raised his voice and all his friends were staring at him. "I mean, your right...She is a little freaky." Ethan then slumped down into his chair, not wanting to be asked why he went off like that.  
"So anyway..." Kate continued the conversation.   
  
Ellie stood at her locker getting her books all together to go home when she suddenly heard her name being called. She turned and saw Lizzie and Miranda standing there. "Hey guys. Whats up?"  
"Nothing." Lizzie said. "Listen, we were going to head to the mall. Want to come with?"  
Ellie wished she go. "Sorry, I am a little busy tonight. Maybe some other time though."  
"Alright." Lizzie said. "Hey, can I have your phone number?"  
"Yeah sure." Ellie then wrote her number on a piece of paper. "Here. I should be home around 7:00 tonight."  
"Cool. I'll call you then." Lizzie said taking the paper. She and Miranda then walked down the hall. Lizzie then stopped.   
"Whats wrong?" Miranda asked.   
"This can't be right." Lizzie said. "This is Ethan's phone number. I should know too."  
Miranda looked at it. "Well, call her later and ask about it. Come on, the mall is calling our names."  
  
Ellie sat in her room working on her pre-calculcus homework. She heard several people complain there was homework on the second day back. But Ellie was very good in math and she also did not mind the homework. To her, it was just something she could breeze right though. Suddenly the phone rang, but Ellie ignored it. She knew that no one would be calling her.   
"Hello?" Ethan answered the phone in his room.   
"Hi, is Ellie there?" A girls voice asked.   
"Yeah, may I ask whos calling?" Ethan asked as he stood up to take the phone to his sister.  
"Lizzie." The girl said.   
"Okay." Ethan said. He knocked on Ellie's door. "Ellie! Lizzie is on the phone!"  
Ellie opened the door and took the phone from him. "Thanks." She said and then slammed the door back in his face. "Hello?" Ellie went and sat back down at her computer desk.   
"Ellie?" The voice said. "Its Lizzie."  
"Oh hey girl, whats up?" Ellie perked up. Lizzie and Miranda were the only two girls she liked at her school.   
"Nothing much." Lizzie said. "I have a question."  
"Okay, shoot." Ellie said.   
"Do you live with Ethan Craft?" Lizzie asked.   
"Yeah, he's my twin brother." Ellie said. "You didn't know that?"  
"No...But I guess thats cool." Lizzie said. "You know, having the most popular boy in school as your brother."  
"Its really no big deal." Ellie said.   
"So, if your family lives here...Then why did you live in Texas?" Lizzie asked.   
"Oh...Its just this thing I do..." Ellie said slowly.  
"Well, I'm glad you moved back." Lizzie said not wanting to push the issue of why she was from Texas.   
"Thanks." Ellie said. She thought about her old home in Dallas, her friends, her old life. She wished she could be happy, but she did not think it would happen.   
The girls talked for another half hour. Then Ethan came and told Ellie he needed to use the phone. So she got off.   
"Here." She threw it to him.   
"Thanks." He said. "Listen, Ellie...There is this party at Mark's house this weekend. You want to come with me? You could meet all my friends."  
"I would rather eat dirt." Ellie said in a sassy tone. "Plus, you know I have training on the weekend."  
Ethan nodded. "Okay...Well, the offer still stands."   
"Thanks." Ellie said. She then sat back down at her desk. "I still have a little more homework so..."  
"I gotcha..." Ethan said. He then left her room and shut the door. "I wish I knew why she hated me. I haven't done anything to her." He thought as he went into his own room. "I guess it was just made to be that brothers and sisters do not get along." 


	3. Lizzie's Advice

Reminder: I do not own any characters from Lizzie McGurie.  
  
The next two weeks went by fairly quickly. Ellie continously picked fights with Ethan, and she was always hanging out with Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo. Ethan was able to keep from all his friends that he was related to Ellie, although she was the common talk of the lunch table.   
Even though Ethan did not want his friends to know that Ellie was his twin, he still could not help but wonder why Ellie hated him so much. He was detremined to change it though.  
  
Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo sat in Lizzie's living room. It was Saturday afternoon and they were quite bored.  
"So, wanna go to the mall?" Miranda asked.   
"Nah, already gone there twice this week." Lizzie said. "How about bowling?"  
"Too smokey in that place." Gordo said.   
"I have an idea." Matt said coming into the room. "If you would not mind taking me with you."  
"What is it?" Lizzie asked. She hoped he had a good idea.  
"Ice skating." Matt told them.  
"Thats a great idea Matt." Miranda said. "We haven't been to the ice rink in so long."  
"It does sound pretty fun." Gordo said.   
"Okay then, lets go." Lizzie said as they stood up.  
"Can Andrea come too?" Matt asked.   
"Who's Andrea?" Lizzie asked.   
"My girlfriend." Matt told her.   
"Sure, tell her we can pick her up in like twenty minutes." Lizzie said.   
"Great." Matt hugged his sister. "Andrea LOVES ice skating." He then ran to call his girlfriend.  
  
  
Ellie got all her stuff together and then walked out of her room. She went downstairs and saw Ethan sitting on the couch with his friends, Mark and Andrew.  
"Hey Elle." Ethan said following her into the kitchen hoping his friends would not follow. "Heading to the rink so early?"  
"I'm supposed to be there in ten minutes Ethan." Ellie told him.   
"Oh...Can I come watch you?" He asked her. "I've never seen you skate before, except on TV."  
"Fine." Ellie said.   
"I'll come with mom and dad in a couple minutes." Ethan said. He then hugged her. "Good luck."  
Ellie was a little shocked that he did this. "Thanks Ethan. I'll see you there."  
Ellie then got her car keys and left the house.   
"Hey Ethan, where are you going?" Mark asked him as he came back into the TV room.   
"To the ice rink." Ethan said.   
"Why?" Andrew asked. "I thought you hated skating."  
"I do, but...My cousin is skating there, you know like figure skating." Ethan said.   
"What she that girl you were just talking to?" Mark asked.   
"Yeah." Ethan said. Ellie was not wearing her normal heavy make-up which made her look a lot different. "Why?"  
"Damn she is fine." Mark said. "I think we should come just so you can introduce me to her."  
"You really want to come?" Ethan asked.   
"Yeah!" Mark said. "I mean, girls in really short skirts, whats not to love?"  
"Okay, but my parents are leaving in like fifteen minutes." Ethan said. He hoped that Ellie would not mind that his friends came along.  
  
Lizzie drove Matt and Andrea to the Ice Palace skating rink, while Grodo drove Miranda in his car. They all met at the front entrance and went inside. It looked a little crazy inside and they thought there might be a hockey game going on.  
"Excuse me." Lizzie said to the people at the front desk. "Is there open skate today?"  
A lady who looked to be in her mid thirties looked at them. "No, I'm sorry. Although we have two rinks, we have some figure skating competions going on today. But you are welcome to stay and watch, it is free." She told them.   
"Okay, thank you." Lizzie said and then turned back to her friends.   
"So, you want to watch the figure skating?" Lizzie asked everyone.  
"Yes please." Andrea piped up. Andrea was a short, skinny blonde girl with blue eyes. She was very quiet and could not exactly understand why Matt liked her so much.  
"Its fine with me." Miranda said.   
"I think I'll stay for a little bit." Grodo said. "But if it gets boring, I'm leaving."  
"Okay." Matt said. "Lets go then."  
They all went and sat in the blechers to watch the girls skate. According to the program, the two winners of the competition would go on to the Olympic qualifiers that November. Lizzie knew that skating was a big thing among the girls in town.  
"Oh my gosh!" Andrea squealed as she read the green piece of paper.   
"What?" Matt asked.   
"Maire Craft is going to be preforming." Andrea told him. "She is my favorite skater of all time."  
"Really?" Matt asked. "Thats cool."  
"Do you take ice skating lessons Andrea?" Lizzie asked her. She noticed that about six girls came out onto the ice to warm up.  
"No." Andrea said. "I ride horses though."  
"Cool." Lizzie smiled.   
  
Mr. and Mrs. Craft, Ethan, Mark and Andrew all walked in to the Ice Palace to watch Ellie skate about fifteen minutes later. Ethan wished that Mark and Andrew would loose interest and then leave. The boys went and sat apart from Ethan's parents. It was not long before Ethan noticed Lizzie and went over to her.  
"Hey Lizzie. What are you doing here?" He asked.   
"Just watching some skating." Lizzie said. "I never knew you liked skating."  
"Oh, I do..." Ethan said. He did not know a good cover up for it. "Can we join you guys?"  
"Sure." Lizzie said as all three boys sat down.  
They waited for the skating to start. They watched all six of the skaters skate and get their scores. Apparently, the girls had already done their short program the night before, and they were now doing their long program. And to much of Andrea's delight, Maire Craft was in first place from the short program. Lizzie could not help but notice how Ethan also looked happy to find out that Maire was in first place.  
Six more skaters came on the ice for their final warm-up about ten minutes later.  
"Thats her!" Andrea told Matt pointing to a girl in a blue dress. "Thats Maire. I heard she just transfered here from Dallas, Texas. She moved here because she switched coaches."  
"You seem to know a lot about this girl." Gordo said as she talked about Maire.  
"Yeah I do, I know her birthday, and how long she has been skating, and I thought I heard somewhere that she had a twin brother. But I don't know." Andrea told everyone.  
Lizzie thought a minute. Maire used to train in Texas, and she had a twin brother. "Ethan, will you come with me to get something to drink?" She asked him.   
"Sure." Ethan said.   
The two of them went down to the bleachers and then went to the snack bar.   
"Ethan, is that Ellie skating out there?" Lizzie asked.   
Ethan gave her a confused look. "Yeah, how did you know?"  
"She told me you were twins, and I knew she had just moved from Texas, and she was always busy doing something." Lizzie said. "I just pieced it all together."  
"Yeah, it is Ellie." Ethan told her. He sat down on a bench close by.   
"I didn't l know she was a figure skater." Lizzie said sitting down next to him.  
"Well she is really modest about it, she doesn't go around telling people she is a champion figure skater." He trailed off for a moment. "Ellie has been ice skating since she was like five." Ethan told her. "Then like nine years old, she was at a class and my aunt was visiting and saw what a good skater she was and said she would give Ellie lessons. My aunt used to figure skate."  
"Then why did she have to go to Texas?" Lizzie asked.   
"My aunt lives there with my uncle and two cousins. She didn't want to just moved her family." Ethan told her. "So Ellie moved there, and learned to love it. And she got so good at skating, but I never saw her anymore, except for on the TV during competitions or for a short time around the holidays. So she moved back here, so we would not be complete strangers."  
"She's been on TV?" Lizzie asked.   
"Yeah, but just for skating." Ethan said. "Like the Junior Olympics, Worlds Championships, US Nationals. All the major ones. She is so good at it and always seemed so happy when I talked to her on the phone, or when we saw each other. Now I can't even say two words to her without have her bite my head off...I just wish I knew why she hated me so much."  
"Ethan, I heard Mark ask you when was your cousin going to skate." Lizzie said.   
"So whats your point?" He asked.   
"I don't think she hates you." Lizzie sighed, wondering if Ethan could understand what she was about to tell him. "But, she probably doesn't like that you tell people she is your cousin. I mean, yeah she does dress a little freaky and won't fit in with your friends, but she probably doesn't like that you ignore the fact that you two are twins."  
Ethan thought another minute. "Its strange...I mean, in all the pictures I saw of her, she wore bright colors, and barely any make-up...But your probably right." Ethan said and then sighed. "Lets go watch her skate. I guess I'll talk to her later about it." They both stood up. "And Lizzie..."  
"Yeah?" She asked.   
"Thanks for listening to me." Ethan smiled.   
Lizzie loved his smile. "Your welcome. I'll listen to you anytime."  
They went back up into the bleachers and rejoiced their group to watch "Maire" skate.  
  
~How does Ellie do on her routine? Does Lizzie's advice really help Ethan? Review and I will post the next chapter.~ 


	4. Kate Gets Dissed

Thanks for all the reviews. Here is the next chapter.  
Also, I do not own any characters from Lizzie McGuire and do not get payed for writing this. Also, I'm going to be talking more about skating competitions, the competitions are real (like World Championships, Nationals, ect.) but all of the figure skaters will be fictional.   
  
Ellie nervously waited backstage in the locker room for her turn. She knew that she could do well, but she was always nervous before she skated. She was finally called to go out. She was the last skater to go and she knew she was going to win, unless she messed up really badly. Ellie was not concieted or anything, its just that she knew several difficult jumps, unlike most of the girls skating there.  
She waited at the sideboards for her turn as she watched her biggest rival there, Liza Newman skate. She tightened her white skates one more time while she waited. Her costume was a navy blue halter kind with silver jems on it. Her hair was in a high bun with a matching ribbon to complete her outfit. She barely had any make-up on and she liked it that way. Ellie felt more like herself than she had since she had left Texas.  
After Holly got her scores, which were very good, and then it was finally Ellie's turn to skate. After quick words from her new coach, Timothy Wilson, she went out on to the ice with a smile on her face.  
"Skating next is Maire Craft." The announcer said. Ellie loved her "skating name." It was really just her middle name, but she liked it.   
Her music finally began and she started to skate in a small circle she then turned and went into a double axel and cleanly landed it. The crowd cheered when she landed it and she continued on as she when into a sit spin and then began to skate backwards and went into a triple flip-triple toe combination. She as always became excited to the crowds reaction and skated very well. She ended her program with a sit spin that went up into a full spin and then placed her arms above her as her finishing pose. She knew at that moment she had taken her first step to winning an Olympic medal.  
  
Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda, Ethan, Matt and Andrea all stood up when she finished to cheer for her. While Mark and Andrew looked at them like they were crazy.  
"She is really good!" Miranda said to Lizzie.   
"You bet she is." Lizzie smiled and clapped her hands harder together as she watch Ellie wave to the crowd and then she went over to get her scores.   
They all sat down as they waited to see her scores. Even though it was obvisous that she had won.  
"And the scores for Maire Craft...Techical Merit, 5.7, 5.7, 5.8, 5.6, 5.6. Performance, 5.8, 5.6, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9. Judges rankings...1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, and 1. Current standings first place." The speaker said.   
Lizzie saw Ellie jump up and hug her coach. Lizzie was very proud of her friend, and she noticed that Ethan looked very proud of her too. He may not be the sharp knife in the drawer, but he seemed to have a good heart.   
  
Mr. and Mrs. Craft soon took the boys home. Ethan could not wait to talk to his sister. After his friends left, he waited in his room for her for almost an hour and he then heard the garage door open and knew she was home.  
He ran downstairs and saw his mother hugging Ellie. He smiled and went into the kitchen.  
"I am so proud of you." Mrs. Craft said as she let go of Ellie. "I know all this training will pay off."  
"It sure will mom." Ellie smiled. "Now I just have to work twice as hard. I am so going to kick butt at the competition in November."  
"Yes you sure are." Ethan said as he went to go hug his sister. "Man, you are awesome."  
"Thanks Ethan." Ellie smiled.   
"Hang on one minute there." Mrs. Craft said. She picked up a camera off the counter and took a picture of the two of them. "I have not gotten a picture of the two of you in the longest time. You two getting along brings a tear to my eye."  
"Awww...Mom." Ethan said.   
"I'm sorry." She laughed and then left the room looking happy that Ellie had not yelled at Ethan.   
"So, Ellie...Wanna go to the mall tonight?" Ethan asked.   
"I don't think so." Ellie said. "I am a little tired, and I have to work on another routine tomorrow. Just incase I do make the Olympic team."  
"Okay." Ethan said. "I guess I will see you later then."  
"Hey Ethan." Ellie said as he began to walk toward the door.   
"Yeah?" He asked.   
"Thanks for coming today." Ellie said. "It meant a lot to me."  
"Your welcome." Ethan smiled. "Thats what twins are for."  
  
The next Monday at school. Ellie went back to her gothic look. She did not care about the kids at school. She decided to just worried about her grades and her skating, since it was what was most important thing at that time. Lizzie told her about how she knew that Ellie was a champion figure skater and promised to be there for her if she ever needed it.   
"Hey...Ellen..." Kate called to her as Ellie passed the popular kids table at lunch.   
"What Kate?" She asked sounding annoyed.   
"I was just wondering, do you think of yourself as the mistress of death?" Kate asked.   
"No Kate I don't." Ellie said smoothly. "Nor do I care what you say about me or my clothes."  
"She is such a freak." Claire whispered to Ethan.  
Ethan didn't laugh at this. "Please don't say that about my sister Claire." He said firmly. Everyone looked at him.  
"She's your sister?" Kate asked in surprise.  
"Twin sister to be exact." Ethan said. He saw Ellie smile at him and he smiled back. "And I would appreciate it if you would stop talking about her at lunch or any other time at that matter."   
Ellie's smile lit up her entire face. "I'll see you later Ethan." She then began to walk off happy that her brother did not just sit back as the girls made fun of her.   
Kate shot a look at Ethan. "You're lying."  
"No I'm not." Ethan told her. "She is my sister, you can ask my parents if you would don't believe me."  
Kate sat back in her chair. "I still think you are making this up."  
"Think what you want, but its true." Ethan told her. He was really relieved that his friends finally knew that he and Ellie were twins.  
  
Last period of the day always sucked for Ellie; It was gym class. Not because she wasn't athletic, there was just something about having the guys stare at your chest as you ran that ticked her off...Not to mention that Kate, Claire and Mary were all in her class.   
"Okay, we are going to try a little basketball today." Coach Keegan told them once they all came out of the locker room. "And yes Kate, you have to at least try to play basketball." He said as Kate opened her mouth to protest and then she just rolled her eyes.   
The class was slipt into two mixed teams of boys and girls. Ellie got mad when she found out she was on the same team as Kate and Claire. Soon the "game" started and even though the boys tried to show off their non existing basketball skill. But they were all shown up by Ellie since she had no problem taking the ball from the boys and scoring points.   
"Alright Ellie." Nick Landeson said as he hit her high fives after she scored a three point shot.   
"Thanks Nick." Ellie said. The one thing she liked about gym class was that since she was very athletic she could keep up with the boys and they all thought she was pretty cool ...at least in that class.   
"Nick, do you think that I could shoot the ball in the net a couple times." Kate asked in her flirty voice.   
"Sure, if you can get it." Nick told her as he rolled his eyes. He then leaned over to Ellie and whispered, "I'll pass you the ball and then you pass it to Kate." And then smiled evilly.  
The ball was put back into play and Ellie once again took it from the other team. She then passed it to Nick who passed it back to Ellie. Ellie then passed it to Kate, who jumped out of the way of the ball and it was called out.   
"What was that for?" Kate screeched.   
"You wanted to shoot the ball." Ellie told her.   
"I am so much better than you are in everything." Kate told her. The whole class stopped the game to see what was going on.   
"I'd like to see that." Ellie said. "Just try."  
"Fine then." Kate said. She then turned around and walked to get extra space.   
"You show her Kate." Claire shouted.   
Ellie stood with her arms folded as she watched Kate do a "flip-flop" which was a cartwheel into two back handsprings then a back tuck. The boys clapped lightly when she finished.   
Kate smirked then went back over to Ellie. "Beat that." She told her.   
"Piece of cake." Ellie said as she went to the spot Kate just was. She ran to get speed and then did a one-handed cartwheel into an "ariel" then into a backhand spring back tuck. Many of the guys clapped for her louder than they did for Kate. She walked back over to Kate. "I thought you could do anything better than me." She said as she notice Kate's eyes flashing.   
"Okay, lets see you do something orginal." Kate said as Ellie was about to walk off.   
Ellie stared at Kate for a minute for a minute. "You mean, I do something, and you try to top me."  
"Yes." Kate said.  
Ellie got an idea. "Anything?"  
"Yes." Kate said again. "Anything you can do...I can do better."   
"Okay then." Ellie said as she went to go get more room. She smiled evily at Kate. She stood completely straight for a minute. She heard Kate say something and Claire laughed. Ellie took a deep breath. She then jumped into the air and did a triple flip and landed it on the gym floor, then moved her feet to the left and went into a double toe loop. Just like she always did went she had to practice her jumps off the ice. She turned back to the class and smirked.   
The guys clapped for her loudly. Ellie looked at Kate who was staring at her wide eyed.   
"I believe its your turn." Ellie said to Kate.  
"Thats not what I meant." Kate said.   
"You did say anything." A boy said from the back.  
"I can't do something like that." Kate said. Many of the people in the school all gasped. Kate never said she could not do anything like that. "I mean...without practice that is." She said quickly.   
"Practice?" Ellie said slyly. "I did not know you were an ice skater."  
"Oh yeah...You know. I love it." Kate bragged, but you could tell she was lying. "I mean, competitions and everything. Its all fun."  
Ellie looked surprised. "Oh really. You compete?"  
"All the time." Kate said.   
"I even watch her." Claire said adding to her big hoax. "She's really good."  
"Oh shut up Kate." Nick said taking Ellie's side. "We all know you aren't a figure skater."  
Ellie motioned for him to keep quiet. She was ready to completely diss Kate. "Well then you know Maire Craft right?" She said. "You know, silver medalists at the World Championships last year?"  
Kate nodded with a confused look. "Oh yeah...I know her..." She shammered. "She has the cutest skating outfits." She tried to cover up her lie.   
"Well thank you." Ellie said smoothly wondering if Kate would catch on.   
"You're that skater Ethan wanted to see skate last Sunday?" Andrew asked her.   
"Yep." Ellie smiled.   
"You're lying..." Claire stood up for her friend. But there was no point.  
"No I'm not." Ellie said. "Thats me, Ellen Maire Craft. Two time silver medalist at the World Championships." Ellie did not normally brag about her skating, but this was different. She had finally found a way to completely embarrass the girl she hated.   
The whole class began to whisper. Kate for once got herself into something she could not get out of.   
  
~Does Kate try to get back at Ellie? Does Ellie make it to the Olympics? Review and I will post more chapters. 


	5. Revenge

Thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad you like the story so far. Keep them up! ~And reminder, I do not own any of the Lizzie McGuire, I do not get payed for writing this...so don't sue me!~  
  
Ethan met his sister at the car at the end of the day. The whole thing that happened between Kate and Ellie during gym class was already known by everyone in school.   
"Is it true?" Ethan asked as he got into the passengers seat.   
"You mean about Kate?" Ellie asked starting the car.   
"Yes." Ethan said.   
"Well yes." Ellie told him. "She dug herself into it. I just buried her in it."  
"What exactly did you do?" Ethan asked. "I mean, she's my girlfriend and all, but this has never happened before."  
"Well, she told me she was better than me at everything. So she did some gymnastics, and I topped that. Then she insisted that I do something and she could top it." Ellie began as she then stopped at a red light.  
"And..." Ethan urged.  
"And so I went and did a skating jump combination." She continued. "She went into this whole thing about how she had to practice those kinds of things...Which is so dumb, you practice your jumps off ice most of the time, but anyway...So then she went into this thing about how she was a skater and she went to competitions. I then asked her if she knew Maire Craft."  
Ethan laughed. "What did she say to that."   
"Something about how her outfits were cute. I just simply told her thank you." Ellie said.   
"Oh my gosh." Ethan said. "I can't believe it. She finally got tangled in her own web."  
"It was pretty brillant wasn't it." Ellie said.   
"You bet it was." Ethan said. There was a short. "Hey Ellie."  
"Yeah?" She asked as they pulled into the driveway.  
"I'm glad you finally came to live with us." Ethan said.   
"Thanks Ethan." Ellie smiled. It may just work out for her after all.  
  
For the next month everyone still talked about how Ellie really showed Kate up. Ellie also slowly began to stop wearing all dark colored clothes, but not completely all togehter. Miranda and Lizzie had gone shopping with her and she bought a ton of new, colored clothes so she mixed them with her older clothes and had one of the cutest wardorbe in school. She made a lot more friends and she actually began to like living there after all.   
Ethan still hung out with his friends, but no longer did they make fun of Ellie for two reasons. She was Ethan's sister, and Kate now hated Ellie with a passion and hated to hear her name. But Ethan and Ellie got along a lot better and even started to hang out when Ellie was not training.   
The Olympic quailfiers were only seven weeks away for Ellie. She and her coach had made a whole new routine up for her long program and everything seemed to be coming together for Ellie.  
"Hey Ellie." Lizzie said as Ellie was packing her backpack up one Friday afternoon.   
"Hey Lizzie." Ellie smiled. Her face was a lot prettier without all the black liner and a lot friendiler. "Whats up girl?"  
"Nothing much." Lizzie said. "Listen, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."  
"Sure, whats that?" Ellie said as she closed her locker.   
"Well, I know you skate a lot and this is your night off...But you see Matt...you know, my little brother." Lizzie said and Ellie nodded. "Well, his girlfriend Andrea is a skating fanatic and she's a fan of yours...Well what I am really trying to ask is..."  
"You want me to show her a couple things about skating right?" Ellie asked.   
"Yeah...If you don't mind." Lizzie said. "She is so sweet and has been dying to meet you since she knew you lived in the area."  
Ellie smiled. "Of course I will."  
"Thank you so much!" Lizzie hugged her friend.   
"No problem." Ellie said. "I guess bring her around 7:30."  
"I will." Lizzie said. "Oh thank you so much!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
"I guess the Ice Princess now gives lessons." Claire said to Kate as they passed by Lizzie and Ellie in the hallway.   
"I think that little priss is going to learn a lesson tonight." Kate said suddenly getting an idea. "Get all of the cheerleaders to go to the ice rink tonight at around 7:30."  
Claire wondered what her friend was thinking. But she agreed to it.   
  
Later, Ellie went to the ice rink at around 6:30. She thought that if she was going to ice skate she might as well go over her new routine a couple times before Lizzie and Andrea got there.   
"Hey Ellie!" Lizzie said as she saw her friend sitting on a bench relacing up her skates.  
Ellie looked up. "Hey Lizzie." She saw a younger boy and girl with her. "And you must be Matt and Andrea."  
The girl blushed a bit. "Yes." She said quietly. "Its nice to meet you Maire. I think you are a great skater."  
"Thank you." Ellie smiled. "And you can call Ellie. Maire is only my skating name."  
"Alright." Andrea said.   
"And I am Matt." The boy said. "I am the cool one of the family."  
Ellie laughed. "Well it is nice to meet you."  
"Well lets not stand around all day, get your skates on!" Lizzie told the two little ones.  
They soon got on the ice. Ellie and Lizzie noticed that Kate and a lot of the other people from their school was there.  
"Why are they here?" Lizzie asked.   
"I don't know." Ellie said. "But it does not matter."  
"Yeah." Lizzie said, wondering if Kate had an idea to embarrass Ellie.   
Ellie showed Andrea several techiques to skating and Andrea seemed to be loving it.   
"Lizzie?" Matt said skating up next to his sister.  
"Yeah?" Lizzie asked.   
"I just wanted to tell you...I think you are the coolest big sister." Matt told her.  
Lizzie smiled. "Why do you say that?"  
"Because, what other sister would give up her Friday night to bring her younger brother to the ice skating rink." Matt explained. "I couldn't ask for a better sister, or even a better friend."  
"Thanks Matt." Lizzie said. What Miranda had told Lizzie a couple months ago about siblings seemed to be true. "You're pretty cool too. For a little brother."  
Matt smiled. "Why thank you." He then leaned closer to her and whispered. "Is it just me, or do all those girls seem to be staring at Ellie?"  
Lizzie thought a minute. "I don't know, but I also do not trust them one bit."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Kate watched Ellie do small spins. She slowly came up with an idea in her head. She was going to make Ellie pay for making her the laughing stock of the school.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"Can you show me one of those layback spins?" Andrea asked Ellie as they were in the middle of the rink.  
"I don't want to show off too much." Ellie said.   
"Just this last thing?" Andrea pleaded.   
"Okay, but this is the last spin." Ellie said. She then began to skate backwards and then began to spin on her left foot and then bent her back backwards and spun faster.  
Andrea watched in awe as she suddenly saw a blonde girl in a pink sweater come and violently push Ellie onto the ice.  
Ellie fell backwards and slammed right into the wall of the rink. The back of her head hit the board as well and she was completely knocked out within ten seconds of hitting the wall.   
Andrea looked and saw the girl who pushed her with the evilest look on her face that Andrea had ever seen.   
  
  
Whoa! How does this effect Ellie? How do Kate's friends respond to her doing this? If I get at least 5 reviews I will post the next chapter. 


	6. Afterwards

Thanks again for the reviews :) Keep them coming.   
And once again...I do not own any of the Lizzie McGuire characters, or anything else in the fan fic...and I do not get payed. so don't sue me.  
  
  
Lizzie and Matt noticed that several people were skating over to one place on the rink. They skated over there as well to see what was going on.   
  
Lizzie pushed through the crowd and saw Ellie laying their motionless. She quickly knelt by her friends side. "Don't just stand there!" She yelled at the people. "Get help!" Two boys quickly skated away to go get help as Lizzie and demanded.   
  
Matt went over to Andrea. "What happened?" He asked her.   
  
"She was showing me this spin and then this girl comes and just pushes her down." Andrea said, clearly she was upset that Ellie was hurt.  
  
"Which girl?" Matt asked.   
  
"That girl in the pink sweater over there." Andrea told him and pointed to her left.   
  
Matt looked and saw Lizzie's old friend Kate Sanders standing there. "Kate..." He growled. Kate was actually smiling that Ellie was hurt.   
  
Lizzie was told to go call Ellie's parents and she did with Matt and Andrea following her.  
  
"Hello?" A mans voice said.  
  
"Hi, Mr. Craft?" Lizzie said. "This is Lizzie MCGuire, one of Ellie's friends, she fell on the ice and is really hurt...I was told to call you to come pick her up."  
  
"Ellie fell?" Mr. Craft asked in alarm. "We will be right down there." He then hung up.   
  
Lizzie hung up the pay phone. "Her dad is coming." She told Matt and Andrea. "Andrea, you are probably the only one who really knows this...what happened?"  
  
"She was showing me a layback spin and then this girl came and pushed her down." Andrea told her.   
  
"What girl?" Lizzie asked.   
  
"It was Kate." Matt answered for his girl friend.   
  
"Kate?" Lizzie asked in shock. She then remembered that Kate would have probably been looking for revenge on Ellie.  
  
"Lizzie!" A guys voice called.   
  
Lizzie turned to see Ethan and Mark walking over to them. "Ethan! When did you get here?"  
  
"Just now." He told her. "We were meeting Kate and the other cheerleaders here. Have you seen them?"  
  
"I sure have." Lizzie said getting extremely angry.   
  
"What?" Ethan asked.   
  
"Your girlfriend almost killed Ellie." Lizzie told him.   
  
Ethan went pale. "What?"  
  
"Its true." Matt chimed in. "Kate pushed her while she was doing a spin and she hit her head on the wall."  
  
"Kate did that?" Mark asked.   
  
"Yes!" Matt exclaimed.   
  
"Where is she?" Ethan asked.   
  
"Probably still on the ice." Lizzie told him.  
  
All five of them ran through the door to the room the rink was in. Ethan opened the door and ran onto the ice and over to where the EMTs were. Many people had gotten off the ice.   
  
"Excuse me son." One of the men in blue said as he stopped Ethan. "You need to get off the ice."  
  
"Thats my sister!" Ethan shouted. He saw Ellie lying on a back board with an oxygen mask on. It was enough to make anyone cry.   
  
"Are your parents here?" The EMT asked.   
  
"No." He said.   
  
"Then you have to wait for them to get here."   
  
"Come on Ethan." Lizzie said. She had followed him onto the ice. She took his hand. "I think there is someone else you need to talk to right now."  
  
Ethan and Lizzie got off the ice and they joined the group of cheerleaders who were sitting on the bleachers. Kate was sitting in the middle with a smirk on her face as she watched Ellie get taken care of by the EMTs.  
  
"That was go low Kate!" Claire told her. "I don't really like Ellie either...But you could have killed her!"  
  
"I didn't mean to push her." Kate said sweetly.  
  
"Oh shut up Kate!" Hannah Walker (a fellow cheerleader) yelled. "I saw you push her down!"  
  
"We all did." Heidi Lawson, who was a senior and captain of the cheerleading squad said outloud. She got an evil look on her face. "Girls, Kate here seems to see that there is no harm in hurting people. What would happen if she dropped one of us at a game when we were doing a stunt? Personally, I do not think we should give her a chance to hurt on of us. Who thinks that Kate does not deserve a spot on our squad?"  
  
All the girls standing around raise their hands. Even Claire and Mary, who Kate thought of as her best friends had their hands raised high. It was easy to see that Kate's reputation was going to get pretty messed up.   
  
"Its settled then." Heidi said. "Kate, you can turn your pom-poms and uniform in on Monday."  
  
"You can't do that...I am the only one..." Kate began.   
  
"Sorry Kate, it has been decided." Mary told her. "Come on girls."   
  
All the cheerleaders left the bleachers giving Kate nasty looks. Kate just shrugged it off.   
  
Ethan and Mark sat down on both sides of her.  
  
"Kate, I wasn't here when you did this...But from what I hear it was the lowest level of low." Ethan told her.   
  
"Really...I was there that day in gym class, and all Ellie did was prove to you that your lies come back to haunt you." Mark told her. "Something everyone else has been trying to do since Freshman year."  
  
"You may have think you would have gotten something out of hurting my sister, and you do get something. You can now flirt with other guys without me caring." Ethan told her firmly. "Its over Kate. I can't date someone who hates my sister so much."  
  
Kate's mouth dropped. "No, no...I" She stammered.   
  
"Yes Kate. Its over." He repeated. "And come close to my sister again and you will regret it!"  
  
"You can forget sitting at our lunch table on Monday." Mark said.   
  
Kate's eyes got wide. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.   
  
"Come on...Lets go before she decides to push us down the bleachers." Mark said as they all stood up and left Kate sitting there all alone.  
  
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Lizzie took Matt and Andrea home since there was nothing she could do for Ellie while she was knocked out. She felt awful for what happened, especially since she knew how much work Ellie had been putting in to her skating.   
  
Lizzie and Matt went into their house through the garage door. Their parents were sitting at the table reading the newspaper like they always did around that time.   
  
"Well hi there." Thier mother, Jo, said.   
  
"Hi mom." They said.  
  
"Did you too just go and spend some time together?" She asked.   
  
"Well sort of." Matt said.   
  
"I took him and a friend skating with Ellie...You remember her?" Lizzie said and her mother nodded. "Well, Ellie fell on the ice and right now has a horrible head injury."  
  
"Thats awful." Jo said.   
  
"How did she fall?" Their dad asked.   
  
"She didn't really fall, Kate Sanders pushed her and her head hit the wall really hard." Matt corrected Lizzie.   
  
"I never thought Kate was so mean." Jo said.   
  
"Neither did I." Matt and Lizzie said at the same time in the same tone. They looked at each other and laughed.   
  
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Ethan and his parents waited in the emergency room until around three in the morning. Ellie had not woken up in that time frame and was sound asleep in a hospital room. Her whole family prayed that she get better and that she would not be too effected by the incident.   
  
Ethan, who had been sleeping in an uncomoftable chair suddenly woke up with a horrible headache. "Ellie's awake." He said to his parents as he rubbed his head.   
  
"How do you know?" Mrs. Craft asked.   
  
"Its a twin thing I guess." Ethan replied.  
  
About ten minutes later, a tall blonde lady in a white coat, and a clipboard in her hand came around the corner.   
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Craft?" She said and they stood up. "I'm Dr. Rolins, I just wanted to come tell you that Ellen has finally come around."  
  
"I told you." Ethan said to his parents. Both of them looked amazed.   
  
"Is she going to be alright?" Mr. Craft asked.  
  
"From what she X-rays show right now I do not know." Dr. Rolins said. "She has some swelling around her brain which may effect her memory , but that luckily did not cause any brain damage from what we see so far. But we will fully know in a couple of days."   
  
They talked with the doctor a few more minutes and then went home to get some sleep.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
~Does Ellie recover from her accident and make it to the Olympics?...or does she forget everything and give up on her dream? Review and you will find out. 


	7. Monday

Thanks so much for all the reviews. And I apologize for taking so long with this chapter. I had a horrible case of writers block and everything I wrote sounded really dumb. But I got over that and here is the next chapter...Enjoy!  
Reminder: In simple forms...I own NOTHING I write in this story.   
  
  
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Ethan could barely sleep at all that night. How could Kate do something so mean? Why did she do it? Why did it have to happen so close to the Olympic trials? Where the questions that ran around in his mind all night.   
  
He finally fell asleep, only to wake up about three hours later around 6:30.   
  
"I wonder if there is anything good on TV now." He thought as he got out of been and went downstairs to the TV room.   
  
He picked up the remote and began flipping through the channels. He sighed when he found out there was nothing on except cooking shows and infomericals. He then got up and went over the the stack of videos on the side of the TV.   
  
"Ah cool...I guess I can watch "Bad Boys" again." Ethan said to himself as he pulled the video tape out from the bottom of the stack making all the other movies fall on the ground beside him.   
  
"Ahhhhh...." He then began to mumble under his breath as he starts to stack the videos back up. He then picked up a blank tape and looked at it.   
  
"I wonder what this could be." He said as he then took it over to the VCR and put the tape in. He then sat back down on the couch and saw himself and Ellie at the Ice Rink from about eight years ago, when he and Ellie were about nine years old.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Their fathers voice came, he was obvisously the one holding the camera. Ellie, who was on the ice looked up at the camera. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Ice skating!" Ellie's little cheery voice came out.   
  
"She going to win a gold medal!" A young boys voice came and the camera suddenly turned and it showed Ethan skating towards his sister.   
  
Ethan smiled as he watched the rest of the home movie. The rest was mainly Ellie and Ethan skating around the rink. Finally it was over and Ethan turned off the VCR.  
  
"She will win a gold medal." He told himself. "I'll make sure she will."  
  
************************************************************************************************************  
  
Around noon, Ethan went with his parents back over to the hospital to check on Ellie. They went up to the floor that Ellie was on and ran into Dr. Rolins on the way up.  
  
"Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Craft." She said as she saw them. "I was just about to come call you. Please come with me to my office."  
  
They all followed the doctor in her office which was very clean and neat. They all sat down as the doctor pulled a file out of her desk.   
  
"We took this x-ray about four hours ago." Dr. Rolins said as she showed them her file. "Since then she does not seem to be showing any sign of brain damage. Ellen woke up this morning and was able to walk fine, she was able to change her clothes and brush her hair."  
  
"So she will be alright?" Mrs. Craft asked.   
  
"Well, as you can see there is some swelling around her temples which as I predicted, is affecting her memory." Dr. Rolins said as she showed them the place that was swollen in Ellie's skull. "Her nurse reported that she can remember things like her family and where she lives, but when we asked her if she remembered what happened last night she did not know."  
  
Ethan looked up. "So how bad is it?"  
  
"I don't know." She told them. "But I am going to let you take her home today, just to see if she can remember things if she is in her normal routine."  
  
"Will she remember things like how to ride a bike?" Mr. Craft asked.   
  
"Once again, I am not all that sure." Dr. Rolins said. "She will remember in time, but until then, go slow and everything."  
  
"Thank you doctor." Mrs. Craft said.   
  
They then went up to Ellie's hospital room and saw her sitting on the couch with her arms folded in the clothes she had been wearing the night before.   
  
"Ellie, are you ready to go home?" Her mother asked as she gave her daughter a hug.  
  
Ellie nodded. "Yes, and get some real food to eat."  
  
Mrs. Craft laughed. "Alright sweetheart."  
  
  
The next morning, Ethan drove Ellie to school. Ellie insisted in going to school that day. She hated doing nothing at home all day. Her parents had called the school and told them about Ellie's problem, so the teachers knew if she did not understand something very easily.   
  
Ethan parked the car. "Ready?" He asked his sister.  
  
Ellie sighed. "Yeah."   
  
"Hey Ellie, if you need help with anything today just come get me alright?" Ethan told her.   
  
"Thanks Ethan." Ellie smiled as she got out of the car. They both walked into school and soon met up with Lizzie and Miranda.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Lizzie smiled.   
  
Ellie looked at her a moment trying to remember her name. "Hi...Lizzie." She finally answered. She then turned to Miranda. "Hey Miranda."  
  
"Hey you remembered both their names." Ethan sounded proud of his sister.  
  
"Of course I do." Ellie said. "There only my two best friends in school."  
  
"So, Ellie..." Lizzie began. "Miranda and I are going to help you get around to your classes today. Is that alright with you?"  
  
"Yeah, thats fine." Ellie said. She had a feeling that it was going to be a long day.  
  
  
"So how is she doing?" Claire asked Ethan later during lunch.   
  
"She is remembering a lot." Ethan told her and everyone else who was listening. They all acted very friendly toward Ellie that day. "But as far as ice skating goes...I have no idea."  
  
"Do you think she will still have a chance at the Olympics?" Mary asked him.   
  
"I don't know. I hope so." Ethan said with a sigh.  
  
"Hey Ethan, sorry we were so mean to your sister." Claire said shyly. "It was really low." There was a chorus of "yeah" and "we're sorry" from the whole table.  
  
"It fine." Ethan said. "But you know, don't say you're sorry if you don't mean it."  
  
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Ellie got into the car at the end of the day. She hated that day. Every talked to her like she was two years old and she had felt so stupid in her classes. She could not remember anything about what they were going over, or understand what half of her notes meant. She was glad the day was at least half way over. She was not all that excited about going to her ice skating lesson later that day.   
  
Ethan stopped the car outside of the Ice Palace. Ellie grabbed her sports bag and got out.   
  
"Hey Ellie." Ethan called as she began to walk towards the doors. She turned. "Want me to stay here with you?"  
  
Ellie nodded. "Yes please."  
  
"Alright." Ethan said as he went to go park the car.  
  
Ellie went inside and slowly changed into the black pants and red shirt she had brought for her lesson. She was so nervous to get back on the ice. Her parents had told her that was how she had gotten hurt and why she couldn't remember a lot of things. But she finally decided to get back out there.   
  
Ellie walked out of the locker room and put her skates on. She then went over and met her coach, Timothy Wilson. Timothy had been an Olympic contender back in 1998 in the Men's Figure skating and placed overall fourth.   
  
"Hey there Ellie." He smiled.   
  
"Hi Timothy." Ellie said slowly, hoping she got the right name.   
  
Timothy nodded. "So how is your head? Your mother called me on Saturday and told me about your accident."  
  
"Its better." Ellie said. "I don't know how much I remember about skating though."  
  
"Well you can at least try and see what you can do." Timothy told her. "But you do know why you are doing this, right?"  
  
"Yeah." Ellie said. "My mother told me I was going to the Olympic trials in like six weeks."  
  
"Well, do you remember your routine?" Timothy asked and then she just shook her head. "Well, why don't we just get out there and see what you can do?"  
  
Ellie nodded in agreement. She then followed her coach out onto the ice and began to skate around.  
  
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"Hey Ethan." Ethan heard as he sat in the bleachers watching Ellie skate. He turned and saw Lizzie climbing up to where he was.   
  
"Hey Lizzie." Ethan smiled as she sat down. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I just wanted to come and see how Ellie is doing." Lizzie told him. "She was really worried about it eariler. I guess I just wanted to come see how she was doing."  
  
"That was pretty cool of you." Ethan said as he then turned back to the rink and watched as Ellie began to skate around the rink backwards.  
  
"Thanks." Lizzie said smiling a bit. She still had a crush on Ethan, but it was a bad idea to be crushing on your friends brother.   
  
They were silent while they watched Ellie as she just skated around the rink. So far, she remembered all the basics, but then came time to see about the spins and jumps. They watched Ellie begin to gain speed and then push off into the air attempting a double axel, but she did not land it very well. They then watched as Ellie try it again and again and again...and each time she got better at it.  
  
"I guess this is all like second nature to her." Lizzie observed.   
  
"Yeah, but she still has a lot of work to do if she even wants to go to the trials." Ethan sighed. He then watched Ellie go into a triple toe jump but she then fell right out of it.  
  
"Ouch." Lizzie said. "Do you think she will have enough time to work all the problems before November?"  
  
"I sure hope so." Ethan said.   
  
Lizzie had noticed that in school and when Ethan was around his friends, he was pretty dimwitted, but when he was talking to her, he was actually pretty good guy. She then looked at Ellie who was on her knees in the middle of the rink where she had fallen. Lizzie had been watching her and begin to think of a way that she could probably help Ellie get back in the groove of skating.  
  
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Ellie fell to her knees when she fell out of the triple toe she was trying. She just shook her head.   
  
"Not bad!" Timothy encouraged her. "Just remember, you need to go into the jump with your head up and shoulders back or you will fall out of it."  
  
Ellie nodded as she got back to her feet. She wanted to go home. She wished there was a time machine so that she could go back in time so that her head injury would not have happened. She just wanted everything to be back to the way it had been before her accident.  
  
For the rest of the week, Ellie went to school feeling stupid and constantly being talked to like she did not understand English. And then she would go to training. She hated it and wanted to quit ice skating all together.   
  
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~Does Ellie pull through and begin to remember stuff again? Or does she throw everything away and just give up? Or do her friends help her pull out of her problem and help her get to the Olympics? Review and you will find out. 


	8. Lizzie to the Rescue

Thanks for the reviews! Here is the next chapter.   
Reminder: I own NADA! Not any characters, or any skating compitions...NADA!  
  
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"Okay Ellie, thats it for today." Timothy told her the next Monday afternoon. "Try to get to the gym and work out a little later."  
"Alright." Ellie said as she got off of the ice. Her skating had been getting better, but it still was not good enough to even have a chance at the Olympic trials. She could even tell that Timothy was giving up on her as well. She hated her life right now.   
Ellie put her skate guards on and then went into the locker room to change into her regular clothes.  
  
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Lizzie had come to the ice arena to watch Ellie once again. She saw the depressed look on her friends face as she walked towards the locker room. Lizzie got up and followed Ellie into the locker room.  
"Ellie!" She called out as she opened the door. She looked and saw Ellie sitting on the bench crying. She went and gave her friend a hug. "Ellie, whats wrong?"  
"I can't do anything out on the ice!" Ellie sobbed. "I can't land jumps, I mess up on have of my spins. Theres no way I can be ready for the Olympic trials!"  
"Awww....Ellie." Lizzie sympathized. She hated seeing her friends cry. "Ellie, I think I can help you though."  
Ellie looked at her. "You can? How?" Ellie asked as she wiped her eyes.  
"I have watched you skate a lot since the accident, and I think your main problem is your posture." Lizzie told her. "My mom has this work out tape that improves your prosture within a week. Why don't you come over and just try it out."  
"Okay." Ellie agreed. "It at least worth a shot."  
  
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Lizzie drove Ellie to her house and they both went inside. Lizzie saw her mother in the kitchen cooking dinner.   
"Hey Mom." Lizzie said giving her mother a hug.   
"Hi Lizzie." Mrs. McGuire said. "How was your day?"  
"It was pretty good." Lizzie said. "Oh mom, you remember Ellie, right?"  
"Hi Mrs. McGuire." Ellie said with a small smile.   
"Well hi Ellie." Mrs. McGuire smiled. "I haven't seen you in a little while."  
"Hey mom, do you still have that workout tape that helps your posture?" Lizzie asked.   
"Its upstairs with all my other workout videos." Mrs. McGuire said.   
"Can Ellie borrow it?" Lizzie asked.  
"Sure." Mrs. McGuire said. "Take whatever you need."  
"Thanks mom." Lizzie said. She then turned and pulled Ellie into their TV room. Lizzie began looking through the several workout videos her mother owned. "Here it is!"  
Ellie took the video from Lizzie and looked at it. "Thanks Lizzie."  
Lizzie pulled out two more videos. "Here...This is supposed to help your legs, and this is to help your abs and back." She handed then to Ellie.   
"Thanks." Ellie said reading the back of all of the videos.  
"Why don't you just come over to my house after your training and we can work out together." Lizzie suggested. "I could be like your personal fitness trainer."   
"Okay." Ellie smiled. "Sounds like a plan."  
  
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For the four days, Lizzie and Ellie worked out with the video tapes. Lizzie also continued to go to Ellie's practices and watch her friend. Even within the four days her friend's posture and grace on and off the ice improved greatly.  
"Ellie, do you remember how you fell?" Lizzie asked after they finished working out to all of the videos on Thursday afternoon.  
"Not really..." Ellie said.   
Matt and Andrea suddenly ran into the room almost running into Lizzie in the process.   
"Whoa! Sorry Lizzie." Matt said as they both stopped.   
"Matt, you know not to run in the house." Lizzie yelled at her brother.  
Ellie looked at the two fighting and then looked at Andrea. She thought a minute. She suddenly remembered that night that she was hit. She remembered showing Andrea how to do a layback spin and then getting pushed down by a girl in a pink sweater...She thought harder...she began to remember that it was Kate who pushed her onto the ice. She also began to remember how her routines for the trials went. She pictured the ice and almost heard the music in her head...  
"Lizzie!" Ellie suddenly jumped up.  
"Whats wrong?" Lizzie asked surprised.   
"Nothing...I just need a ride back over to the arena." Ellie said. "Please?"  
"Sure...Did you forget something there?" Lizzie asked a little confused about why Ellie wanted to go back.  
"No...Just come on." Ellie said.   
Lizzie drove Ellie back to the ice arena and they both went inside. Ellie put her tights, skirt, and skates back on. Lizzie rented a pair of skates and then sat down on a bench next to Ellie.   
"Ellie, what are you doing?" Lizzie asked tying her skates.  
"It all coming back to me!" Ellie told her happily. "I think I remember my whole routine."  
"Thats great." Lizzie said.   
"Here..." Ellie took a cd out of her bag and handed it to Lizzie. "Go tell them to turn on this music."  
Lizzie took the tape and asked the people to turn it on for Ellie. She then went and got onto the ice and saw Ellie skating around to her warm-up music. She watched Ellie get ready to do a double axel. She went into it with her head up and back straight then pushed off from the ice. She cleanly landed it, she didn't stop there though. She went right into a double toe loop and it that jump prefectly as well.   
Ellie continued to skate to her upbeat music doing jumps, spins, and crossovers. She did all of everything extremely well, almost as though she never had her accident. Finally her music stopped and she skated over and hugged Lizzie.   
"Lizzie! I did it!" Ellie cried out in excitment.   
"You sure did!" Lizzie said, she was very proud of her friend. "I knew you could do it!"  
"Oh my gosh...I don't know why but seeing your brother and his girlfriend helped me remember like everything." Ellie said in excitment.  
"That is so freaky." Lizzie said. "I guess it was just a minor case of amnesia."  
"Well whatever it was it is gone now." Ellie smiled.   
  
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~Ellie's memory finally came back! Ya! But how do the trials go? Does she even goto them? Does Kate finally come around and apologize to Ellie? ~Yeah, I know I have been ignoring Kate...but she plays a huge role in the next chapter.~ Anyway...Review and I will post the next chapter. 


	9. I Forgive You

Hey guys. Thanks again for all the reviews I have been getting. Keep them coming.  
Also, I just want you to know, I'm sorry it has been so long since I have updated this story. This week has really been the hardest week of my whole life...You see on Monday night (Just as I was beging to write this chapter) I found out that one of the girls from my school died in a car crash. And since I go to a smaller school, where pretty much everyone knows each other...Everyone in the school was greatly saddened by her death. All week long in school we could just be sitting in class talking and someone would burst into tears. It has been really hard on everyone. RIP ^*^*^, we all love and miss you very much. Please pray for this girl's family, believe me, they need all the prayers they can get.   
I know you could probably care less about what I just wrote above, but I just wanted to fill you in on why I have not been updating lately. I will try my hardest to update this story as much as I can. If not, you will know why. So please just be patient with me for the time being.  
Reminder: I own none of the characters from Lizzie McGuire, nor do I get payed for writing this.   
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The next day, Ellie went into school feeling a whole lot better than she had been in a long time. Now that she knew her chances at the trials were better, she was much more moviated.   
  
"Hey guys." Ellie said as she sat down at the table where Gordo and Miranda were sitting at lunch later.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Miranda said. "How are you doing?"  
"Pretty good." Ellie said as she opened her water bottle.  
  
"So Lizzie says you were doing really well at skating yesterday." Gordo said trying to spark conversation.   
  
"Yeah, I don't know what it was, but I just seemed to remember everything last night after seeing Matt and Andrea." Ellie said.   
  
"Well, thats cool." Miranda said. "I think I'm going to come to your practice today with Lizzie. Is that cool with you?"  
  
"Yeah thats fine." Ellie said. She then looked and saw a blonde girl sitting alone on the other side of the cafeteria. "Hey, whos that over there?"  
  
Miranda looked where Ellie was pointing. "Thats Kate."  
  
Ellie looked at the girl again. Could that really be the Kate that Ellie had hated so much before her accident. It couldn't be. The Kate that Ellie remembered was always wearing the prettiest clothes, her hair was always prefect, and she always had a ton of make-up on. Not to mention the fact she always seemed to look all snobby with a ton of friends around her. But the girl Ellie was looking at was wearing jeans and a baby tee. Her hair was just pulled into a ponytail and she had barely any make-up on. And she was all alone. What happened to her?  
  
"Why is she all alone?" Ellie asked.   
  
"No one told you?" Miranda asked in surprise.  
  
"No..." Ellie began.  
  
"It was like right after she hurt you that Ethan broke up with her, she got dropped from the cheerleading squad, and she was being ignored by all of her friends." Gordo explained. "Her plan of revenge didn't really work all that well."  
  
"I guess not." Ellie said. She looked at Kate and sighed. Even though she remembered hating her, and that Kate was the one who almost ruin her chance at the Olympics...she hated seeing anyone miserable.  
  
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Lizzie drove Ellie and Miranda to the ice arena after school was over. Ellie went and changed into her tights and black skating skirt. She then put her skates on and laced them.   
  
"I did it last night, I can do it again." Ellie said her herself as she walked out of the locker room.   
  
"Hey there Ellie." Timothy greeted her with a smile, like always.  
  
"Are you ready to work on your triple jumps?" Timothy asked.   
  
"How about I just warm-up like I used to?" Ellie suggested.  
  
"Are you sure?" He asked.   
  
"I'm positive." Ellie said with a smile as she handed him a CD.  
  
"All right then." Timothy said as Ellie went and got on the ice.   
  
Ellie skated out to the middle of the empty ice rink, waiting for her music to start. Finally the music to Eiffel 65's song "Move Your Body" came on. Ellie started out with just trying her crossovers, then going into a camel spin. She skated quickly to the music and then went into a triple salchow, double toe combination. She finished skating to the song doing several jumps and spins. Finally the song ended and Ellie saw Timothy skating toward her and clapping.  
  
"Wow!" Timothy said as he gave Ellie a hug. "When did your memory come back?"  
  
"Last night." Ellie told him. "My friend brought me back up hear and I just began skating like there was never a problem."  
  
"Well, do you think you can do your long program?" Timothy asked her.   
  
"I think it is possible." Ellie said smiling.  
  
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Lizzie and Miranda sat and watched Ellie skate to her new long program, which still had no music to it.   
  
"Wow, she is really good." Miranda said in awe as she watched Ellie do a triple flip jump.  
  
"I know." Lizzie smiled. "I was so proud of her last night when I watched her skate. Its almost like she got a second chance."  
  
"Thats pretty cool." Miranda smiled. "Wouldn't it be so cool is she did win a medal at the Olympics?"  
  
"That would be so awesome." Lizzie said. "But lets not jinx her chances."  
  
There was a pause as they sat watching Ellie. "I know this is random...But do you feel bad for Kate?" Miranda asked.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Lizzie asked in surprise.  
  
"I mean think about it..." Miranda began. "Yeah she did hurt Ellie, but have you seen her lately?"  
  
Lizzie thought a minute. "I guess I feel a little bad for her."  
  
"I mean, I'm still mad at her for what she did. But I ran into her the other day and she dropped her books on the ground and she said nothing to me." Miranda told her friend. "There is no more fun in hating her."  
  
"She has been acting a little zoned out lately." Lizzie said as she pictured the way Kate had been looking the past week.  
  
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"Ellie!" Claire called to Ellie the next day at lunch. "Come sit with us!"  
  
Ellie nervously walked toward the popular table. She never really got along with any of them, even after they all had ditched Kate. She took her backpack off and sat next to Claire. "Hey." She smiled.   
  
"Hey Ellie." Mary said sweetly. "Whats up?"  
  
"Nothing much." Ellie said.   
  
"Thats cool." Mary said. "Listen, I'm having this huge party Saturday night. You wanna come?"  
  
Ellie thought a moment. "Sorry, I already had plans." She lied.   
  
"Oh, can't you rescheudule?" Claire asked.   
  
"Not really." Ellie said.   
  
"Well if you change you mind...The offer still stands." Mary told her.   
  
They began to talk about what they would wear to the party on Saturday night and all Ellie wanted to do was get out of there.  
  
"I know what I am NOT wearing." Mary said.   
  
"Whats that?" Kristen, a fellow cheerleader with pretty red hair, asked.  
  
"Something like that loser over there." Mary said in a sassy tone as she pointed over towards Kate who was once again sitting all alone.  
  
All the girls laughed.   
  
"Yeah, can you believe we used to be friends with her?" Claire said with a laugh.  
  
Ellie sighed as she looked over at Kate. She hated her for the way she got revenge, but yet, Ellie hated seeing her look so unhappy. She then stood up and grabbed her backpack.  
  
"Hey Ellie, where are you going?" Claire asked.  
  
"Don't worry about it." Ellie said. She then walked over to the empty table Kate was sitting at and sat down next to her. "Hey Kate."  
  
Kate looked up. "What do you want?" She asked in her usual tone.  
  
"Just to come sit here with you." Ellie said.  
  
"Why would you do that?" Kate asked. "I'm the biggest loser in school, why would the famous Maire Carft want to sit with me?"  
  
"Because, I just wanted to tell you something." Ellie began.  
  
"And what is that?" Kate asked as she folded her arms.  
  
"I forgive you." Ellie told her.   
  
Kate stopped a moment. "Excuse me?" She asked in a lighter tone.  
  
"I said I forgive you for pushing me down while I was skating." Ellie repeated.  
  
Kate looked at her a moment. "Even though I almost ruined your chances to get to the Olympics and..." She sounded bewildered.   
  
"Yes Kate." Ellie said.   
  
"Why?" Kate asked her.  
  
"Because..." Ellie said. "I suffered from the fall a little bit, but thats all over now. I'm skating just like I did before the accident happened, there is no reason to keep an old fued going anyway."   
  
Kate was silence for a minute, just staring at Ellie. She then began crying. "I'm so sorry Ellie!" She sobbed.   
  
Ellie hugged Kate. She then helped Kate up and they went into the girls bathroom so they could talk privately. "Kate, its alright." She said as Kate hoisted herself onto the counter.  
  
"No its not okay!" Kate yelled. "I'm such a loser that I would make myself feel better by ruining your chances to do something great. How shallow is that?" She then buried her face in her hands and sobbed.  
  
"Kate, its normal to be jealous of other people." Ellie said slowly.  
  
"But how many people do something like I did?" Kate asked. "I'm such a loser! I have no friends, no boyfriend, nothing to do after school...NOTHING!"  
  
Ellie watched Kate cry for the next couple minutes. She didn't know what to say to her.   
  
Kate finally looked up. "You probably think I'm the biggest baby, don't you?" She asked Ellie.  
  
Ellie handed her a tissue. "No, I don't." She told her. "Sometimes you just need to let it all out."   
  
Kate wiped her tears with the tissue. "Thanks Ellie. I really wish I had a friend like you."  
  
"Who said you couldn't?" Ellie asked.   
  
Kate shook her head. "After what I did to you, how could we be friends?"  
  
"Well you know, I was once told that the key to the future is to forget the past." Ellie told her. "I'm willing to start over if you are."  
  
Kate nodded. "I can agree with that."  
  
"Good." Ellie smiled.  
  
The two girls walked out of the bathroom and went on to class. Ellie was happy to see Kate smile for the first time, in a long time.  
  
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There you go, chapter nine. Review please. I will post chapter ten as soon as it is written. I promise. 


	10. The Competition

Hey...I have finally gotten done with this chapter...I made it pretty long to make up for me taking so long to write it.   
Thanks for all the great reviews...and your thoughts and prayers for my friend's family (read the top part of the last chapter if you are confused). Everyone at my school is doing a lot better. So thanks again.   
Here are a couple reminders:  
1.) Maire is Ellie's "skating name" so when I use the name Maire, I mean Ellie.  
2.) I do not own any of these charactors...I do not get payed for writing it.  
3.) Enjoy this chapter since it took me forever to write!  
  
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For the next month, Ellie continued to workout with Lizzie and Miranda and then go to skating practice after school. Just like she used to.  
  
But one thing was different. Kate now hung out with them. Both Lizzie and Miranda had been able to forgive Kate for being so rude to them in the past and excepted her back into their group of friends. So now their "crew" consisted of Lizzie, Miranda, Ellie, Kate and Gordo. They always hung out on the weekends and after school.  
  
Finally the day had come, it was time for Ellie to pack up her skating gear and get on the plane to go to Detriot, Michigan for the US Nationals to compete for one of the three places on the Olympic Ladies Figure Skating team.   
  
But of course she wasn't going alone. Of course her coach and physical theorpist (sp?) went with her. And she had begged Lizzie to come along with her for moral support incase something went wrong, or to calm her down when she was freaking out backstage. And as she had planned for months, Ethan came along too.   
  
"Wow, this is amazing Ellie!" Lizzie exclaimed as they walked into the skate arena for Ellie's final full practice. The next two nights she would be skating with all the eyes on America on her and several other female figure skaters.   
  
"Isn't it just goregous!" Ellie said.   
  
"Well lets not stare at the ice all day!" Timothy told Ellie. "You need to go get your skates on and get out there!"  
  
"Oh right!" Ellie said. She then began to walk towards the women's locker room.  
  
Lizzie and Ethan went to go sit in the bleachers to watch Ellie like they always did.   
  
"It was really cool of you to come with is Lizzie." Ethan said as they sat down.  
  
"Thanks Ethan." Lizzie smiled. She still thought Ethan was cute, but moved on to someone else.   
  
There was a pause as they sat there and watched several girls skate on the ice. It was amazing how even though their where almost eight girls out there, they never ran into each other or anything.   
  
"So, aren't you going out with Claire?" Lizzie said trying to start conversation.  
  
"No." Ethan said. "We did for a little while and then we broke up."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Lizzie said.   
  
"Don't be." Ethan said. "It wasn't like we were serious or anything." There was another short pause. "Aren't you going out with Gordo?"  
  
Lizzie blushed. "Yes...." She giggled. "How did you know?"  
  
"Listening to Ellie's phone conversations." Ethan told her with a smirk on his face. "How come you didn't tell anyone at school?"  
  
"I didn't want to tell everyone I had a boyfriend, just a few of my closest friends." Lizzie explained.   
  
"Well, thats cool." Ethan said.   
  
"Yeah, this year is so weird." Lizzie said. "And if Ellie does go to the Olympics, it will only get weirder as time goes on."  
  
"True, but it will be a cool sort of weird." Ethan said.   
  
"Yeah, I guess it will be." Lizzie smiled and then watched her friend skate again.  
  
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The next night was the big night. The short program for Ellie. With the way it was set up, Ellie had to place within the top five to even have a chance at getting a spot on the Olympic team. But she was pretty sure she could make the pass through.  
  
After Ellie had warmed up, she changed into her black and red dress. It was 3/4 sheevles with ruffles on the ends, and she had a matching ribbons that she tired around her bun that was on the top of her head. She put the skate guards on her skates and constantly tapped her foot as she sat on the bench, just to somehow calm her nerves.  
  
"Alright Ellie...You're up next." Jerry, who was in charge of running everything backstage, called to her.   
  
Ellie stood up. She was the third to last skater to go. She began to shake her hands as she walked toward the ice.   
  
"Ellie, you'll do great!" Ethan encouraged. He and Lizzie were allow to be with her backstage while she waited to go on.  
  
"Thanks Ethan." Ellie smiled at her twin.   
  
She then walked through the door and stepped on the carpeted place where she was did her last minute stretching while America's 'Ice Princess', Taylor Johnson, skated to her short program. Ellie knew that unless Taylor was to fall in either of her programs, she was definatitly had a spot on the Olympic team.   
  
Taylor was ninteen years old and had stormed the skating world since she was sixteen years old.; since then she had won several medals and never placed lower than fifth place in any competitions. She and Ellie always placed one behind the other for the past two years since Ellie had been competing at that level. But although they had a heated rivaly on the ice, they were pretty good friends off ice.   
  
Taylor finished her short program and the crowd cheered her on. She waved to them as they threw flowers for her onto the ice. Taylor then skated off the ice to get her scores.  
  
Ellie then went onto the ice for her last minute warm-up while Taylor got her scores. Ellie did not even hear them, she was much too focused on her final warm-up. But with the response that the crowd had, Ellie knew Taylor's scores very good. She shook it from her mind as she skated over to where Timothy was standing at the side boards.   
  
"Remember Ellie, you can do this." Timothy told her. "You have just nailed all your jumps...You can do this!"  
  
Ellie nodded and smiled. "I can do it." She said to encourage herself.   
  
"Now get out there and show them what you are made of!" He encouraged.   
  
Ellie smiled and turned away as she took a deep breath.   
  
"Skating next is Maire Craft." The voice over the intercome announced as Ellie skated out to center ice.   
  
Ellie smiled thinking how great it was to finally be competing once again. She then crossed her left foot over her right and placed her hands on her hips. Her music selection, which was a the prelude to "Carmen" began to play and it filled the arena. Unlike many skaters programs that began slow and got faster, her routine was very upbeat in the begining and then got a little slower, then fast again.   
  
She began to skate forward as it began and quickly went into her footwork, which was different from all the other skaters in her group. She then quickly went into a double axel and landed it cleanly. Then she skated backwards and went into her triple lutz, double toe combination. She was happy that she was able to pull off the triple lutz correctly, lately she had been making the mistake of turning it into a "flutz." (A/N: In skating a lutz jump is when the skater takes off from the outside edge of their skate, and a flutz is when the skater takes off from the inside edge of their skate which judges are able to deduct points for). She skated the rest of her program flawlessly. She finished her program with a y-spin and then ended in the same pose she began with.  
  
Ellie looked up and smiled at the crowd. She loved seeing them cheering for her. She bowed and waved for a moment then skated off the ice for her mark.  
  
Ethan hugged her as soon as she got off the ice. "That was great!"  
  
"Thanks Ethan." Ellie smiled. She then looked at Lizzie and got a hug from her as well.   
  
"Oh my gosh girl!" Lizzie squealed. "That was amzing!"  
  
Ellie smiled. She loved every moment of the competition, except the part that was up next...Waiting for the scores.  
  
Ellie sat down next to Timothy on the gray couch in the "Kiss and Cry" area to wait for her scores. Ethan and Lizzie sat on her other side.   
  
"Look." Timothy said to Ellie. He pointed to the small moniter by them which was showing the routine Ellie had just gotten done skating to.  
  
Ellie watched it. "Look at that!" She pointed to the screen as she watched herself do a triple flip jump. She smiled brightly.  
  
The loud speaker then cracked. Ellie grabbed Ethan's hand. She was so nervous about her scores as always. She knew she just skated her very best, but did the judges think so as well?  
  
"Um...Ellie...That hurts..." Ethan said as Ellie was clenching onto his hand very tightly. "Ou!"  
  
Ellie ignored him as she wanted for her scores. She bowed her head and closed her eyes to say a small prayer while she waited.   
  
"And the scores for Maire Craft..." The speaker said. "Techinal Merit..."  
  
Ellie held her breath as she still had a firm grip on Ethan's hand and he looked like he was in much pain from it.   
  
"...5.7, 5.7, 5.6, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8." The speaker announced. A lot of cheering came from the crowd. "Preformance...5.8, 5.8, 5.7, 5.9, 5.9, 5.7, 5.8. Judges ranks...2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st." More cheering came from the crowd. "Current placement...2nd."  
  
Ellie watched the scores come across the small monitor. She squealed when she saw them and finally let go of Ethan's hand. She then jumped up and hugged her coach. She then turned to hug Lizzie and Ethan. She was so happy she had gotten such a high placement.  
  
They got up and began to move to the backstage area when Ellie was stopped by ABC sports for a quick interview. Which Ellie agreed to.   
  
"Alright, we are here in Detriot with silver World medalist, Maire Craft..." George the reporter told the camera. "Hi Maire, how are you doing?"  
  
Ellie smiled. "I'm doing pretty good."  
  
"Thats good. So are you happy with the way you just skated?" He asked her.   
  
"Yes, I am very happy with it." Ellie said.   
  
"Now, it is said that two spots on the team have been taken by you and Taylor Johnson. What do you have to say about that?" George asked her.   
  
Ellie hadn't heard that comment before. She thought she had good chances at making the team, but she didn't think about it that way. "Well..." She began a little unsure. "I'm not sure what to say about that, I mean I would like to go on to the Olympics, I would like to win this competition, but right now nothing is written in ink so I can't really say its a sure thing."   
  
"Well good luck to you tomorrow night." George said.   
  
"Thank you." Ellie smiled again and then turned and began walking back to the locker room.  
  
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The next day, Ellie had her final practice for her long program. She was very confident, but still very nervous as she put on her long sheelved, black sparkly dress for the long program that night. She was tying her skates as the tech crew came into the locker room to tell the last eight girls it was time for their final warm-up. Ellie and the other final eight girls left the locker room and stepped onto the ice.   
  
Ellie began to slowly skate to her routine, making sure she was watching out for the other girls around her. But one of the other girls, Jessica Hudson (who was one of the skaters who thought she was great skater, but thought too highly of herself) suddenly came out of no where and she and Ellie ran right into each other just as Ellie was about to go into a triple lutz.   
  
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"Oh my gosh!" Miranda exclaimed as she saw Ellie collide with Jessica. She had invited Gordo, Kate, Matt, and Andrea all over to her house to watch Ellie skate.   
  
"What?" Gordo asked as he came back into the room with a bowl of popcorn and sat down on the couch.   
  
"Jessica Hudson and Ellie just ran into each other." Miranda told him.   
  
"I really hope she's alright." Kate said sounding very worried for her friend.   
  
They all went back to watching their friend who was for the moment lying on the ice, but then a girl in a light green dress with brown hair went over to Ellie.  
  
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When the two girls ran into each other, Jessica stumbled forward and was barely hurt. But Ellie fell sideways and then fell onto the ice on her left side, she clearly had the wind knocked out of her.   
  
"Ellie!" Taylor called. She skated towards her once she saw what was going on to see if Ellie was alright. She knelt down next to her. "Are you okay?"  
  
Ellie nodded. "Yeah..." She turned on her stomach and tried to push herself up, but couldn't support herself.   
  
"Oh no!" Taylor said. "Come on." Taylor stood behind Ellie and pulled her up. She then put her arm around Ellie and helped her over to the side boards. All the other girls had stopped to watch was had happened.   
  
Ellie was handed off to the EMTs who took her over to one of the couches and sat her down. She finally was able to stand up on her own, but she did not know if she could do her routine. She went back to the locker room to wait for her turn. They began fifteen minutes late, but it seemed much too fast for Ellie. She sat backstage with Lizzie and Ethan just wondering how she would be able to do her routine. It got closer and closer for her time to go. She was going to be second to last to go, and then Taylor would go last.   
  
Jerry (guy in charge of everything backstage) came up to her about a half hour later. "Ellie, do you think you can skate?"  
  
Ellie stood up. "I don't know if I can skate, but I sure am going to try my hardest." She told him.   
  
"Alright." Jerry said. He then led her out to the carpeted area.   
  
Ellie tried to loosen her extremely tense muscles as Lindsay White finished her routine. She then waited for Lindsay to get off the ice so she could get on their and do her final warm-up.   
  
Ellie stepped onto the ice and she felt refreshed. She knew she could do it. She told herself that she was not going to wait another for years for a second chance at the Olympics. She was going to the Olympics that year, she was determined.   
  
Ellie went to get some last minute tips from Timothy over at the side boards. She was surprised to see Ethan standing next to Timothy.   
  
"I can do this!" Ellie told them as she skated over towards them.   
  
"Yes you can." Timothy said. "And remember, nothing prefect. Just give it all you got. I don't think I have met anyone with your determation Ellie."  
  
Ellie smiled. "Thanks coach."  
  
"Now I think Ethan wants to say something as well." Timothy said.   
  
Ellie turned towards her brother and smiled. "Whats up?"  
  
"Ellie, I just wanted to tell you that win or loose..." He began. "You are still the coolest sister ever. Not to mention one of the best friends I have ever had."  
  
Ellie smiled. "Thanks." She said. "I mean I guess thats what brothers and sisters are for..."  
  
"Life time best friends..." They said in unison. They both laughed as soon as it was said.   
  
Ellie hugged her brother. "Thanks."   
  
"Now get out there and show them what you are made of!" Ethan told her.   
  
Ellie saluted her brother. "Yes sir!" She then smiled as she turned and skated towards center ice.   
  
"Skate next is Maire Craft." The speaker said.   
  
Several fans cheered loudly for her as she smiled at them and then crossed her right foot behind her left and put her hands across her chest. While she waited for the music to begin she realized something, it didn't matter if she made the Olympic team. What really did matter to her in life she already had. A loving family, great friends, and a best friend that would be there with her forever. Although it would be really cool to make the Olympic team.  
  
Finally her music finally began. Her routine was "The Breaking of The Fellowship" from the "Lord Of The Rings" soundtrack. She began to slowly skate to it. Her whole routine was prefect for her, she had the facial expressions, the passion and the grace that no other skater could top. She went into a triple flip jump and landed it cleanly. She kept her excitement in knowing that was only one of the seven jumps she had to land within that four minute period. She contined to skate and began to skate backwards and then went into her triple lutz triple toe combination and landed those perfectly. She continued to skate flawlessly. She then went into a skid spiral and ended her program with a y-spin. Her program ended, Ellie stood with her arms extended out as she looked up at the ceiling. She did it...She skated her whole program flawlessly. She knew she had made the team.  
  
The crowd rose to their feet cheering for Ellie. She just stood there a moment.   
  
"Am I dreaming all of this?" She asked herself. She then smiled and waved to the crowd. Watching everyone cheer for her was amazing. She never wanted the moment to end.   
  
Eventually she got off the ice, knowing that it was going to be the longest minutes of her life as she waited for her scores.   
  
"You did it!" Timothy exclaimed as she got off the ice.   
"I don't even know how I did...But I did it!" Ellie exclaimed. She looked around and noticed that Ethan and Lizzie were no where to be seen. "Where are Ethan and Lizzie?"  
  
"The crew told them to go backstage because it was getting cramped out here." Timothy told her.   
  
"Oh..." Ellie said. She really wished her friends where there. But she went to go sit and wait for her scores in the Kiss and Cry again. Her stomach was doing flip flops.   
  
She was watching the monitor when she noticed that a camera was right in front of her. She smiled and waved to it. "Hi mommy and daddy!" She smiled. "Miranda, Gordo, and Kate you better be watching this!"  
  
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"Did she just say our names?" Gordo asked as they all watched Ellie wait for her scores. They all wanted to know the outcome of her skating.   
  
"I think she did..." Miranda said.   
  
"Oh be quiet...They are about to read her scores!" Kate scolded them, then went back to staring at the TV.   
  
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The speaker crackled and Ellie's stomach tighten yet again. She just wanted to hear her scores...  
  
"And the scores for Maire Craft...Techinal Merit..." The speaker announced  
.   
Ellie began to listen fully as she watched the monitor. The suspense was killing her...Did she make the team or not?...  
  
  
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How good are Ellie's scores? Does she place high enough to go to the Olympics? Review and you will find out! (Sorry...I just wanted to throw something into this chapter that would turn into a real cliff hanger.) 


	11. The Scores...

Thanks soooooo much for all the reviews. It really brightens my day to come home from school and see some new reviews. Well...I am finally done with this chapter. So Enjoy :) //And remember: I own nothing in this story\\ ...And another thing, I have no clue about how the scores in figure skating are added. All I know is that it is best to get above a 5.4. So please no e-mails saying something like, "The scores do not add up." or something like that. But have fun reading this chapter!  
  
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The speaker crackled again. "5.8, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.8."   
  
Ellie's eyes widened as she saw her scores flash across the monitor. She got so excited.   
  
"Performance...5.9, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.7, 6.0, 5.9." The speaker announced. "Judges standings...1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd. Current placement: 1st."  
  
Ellie squealed with excitement as she saw the rest of her scores go across. She got even more excited when she found out she was in first place. She jumped up and hugged her coach. With Taylor being the last skater to go she knew that she won a medal...But would it be her first US title...or a silver medal?  
  
Ellie put her skate guards on and went back to the locker room to find Lizzie and Ethan. She found them right where she thought they would be.  
  
"Ellie! You did it!" Lizzie exclaimed hugging her friend. "You are going to the Olympics!"  
  
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Ellie screamed. She jumped up and down for a moment. She then calmed down when she noticed how much of a spaz she was being.   
  
"Calm down there!" Lizzie teased.   
  
"I'm sorry I just needed to spaz out when I wasn't in front of the camera." Ellie laughed. She then turned to her brother.   
  
"Ellie!" He picked her up and hugged her. "I'm so proud of you!"  
  
"Thanks Ethan!" Ellie said as Ethan set her down. "I could not have done it without your little pep talk."  
  
"Glad I could help." Ethan said smiling at his twin.   
  
"Come on!" Lizzie said. "Lets watch Taylor skate."  
  
They all watched Taylor skate on the small monitor in the locker room. Taylor skated very well. But on the last jump of her program, she rotated it beautifully, but skid a little on the landing. Her program ended, and Ellie waited to see Taylor's scores. She was nervous. Which color medal would she be getting? Silver...or Gold?  
  
Since the monitor in the locker room had no sound, Ellie had to wait for the scores to be shown across the bottom of the screen. She looked at the scores, but did not add them up quickly enough...But finally it showed that her marks were only high enough for 2nd place.   
  
"Ellie...You won the gold!" Ethan said.   
  
Ellie sat there for a moment. "I won...I won...I won my first US title!" Ellie exclaimed. She was so excited. She had waited for a gold medal in anything for a long time...she always got silver or bronze since she had been in the senior group of skaters. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!" She jumped up and spun around.  
  
Ethan put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "Its okay Ellie...Breath..."  
  
Ellie laughed. "Okay...okay..." She sat down on the bench.  
  
Jerry then came into the locker room. "Okay...Ellie and Nicole come on. Time for you to get back on the ice."  
  
Ellie stood up again and left the locker room with Nicole Parker, who won the bronze. Ellie smiled at her. "Hey, congradulations girl."  
  
"Thanks Ellie." Nicole smiled back. Nicole was one of those people who was beautiful on the inside, and the out. Ellie never saw her get angry at anyone, and even when she was having an awful day, you could never tell just by talking to her. She was eighteen and had dark red hair and green eyes, and her smile made her face light up. "You skated a really awesome program, and after that fall you took...wow...You are amazing."   
  
"Thanks Nicole." Ellie smiled. They stepped out onto the carpeted area where they met Taylor.   
  
Taylor hugged both of them as they got there. "You guys did great tonight!" She told them. "Next stop for all three of us...The Olympics!"  
  
"I know!" Nicole smiled. "Aren't you excited?"  
  
"Very." Taylor and Ellie said together. They all continued to talk for a few more minutes.  
  
Jerry came over and broke up their little pow-wow. "Okay girls...we are setting up the podium right now. Nicole you go on first...Then Taylor...and then Ellie. You know wave to the crowd and everything. You girls know how it is done. And be ready for a lot of pictures. So remember to smile."  
  
"Alright." They all smiled at him.   
  
They waited a few more minutes. The news reporters were not to speak to the girls so they could get onto the podium on time. Finally they told the girls they had everything set up.  
  
The speaker crackled. "Winner of the bronze medal...Nicole Parker!"   
  
Nicole skated onto the center of the ice and she then stopped while she smiled and waved to the fans. She then proceeded to the podium.   
  
"Here is your silver medalist...Taylor Johnson!" The speaker announced.   
  
Taylor had her usual huge smile on her face as she skated onto the ice and waved to the crowd. She also stopped center ice and waved to the crowd and bowed. Ellie knew she loved every minute she was on the ice. Taylor then skated towards the poduim.  
  
"And now...The 2005 United States National Champion...Maire Craft!" The speaker announed.   
  
Ellie smiled and glided to the center of the ice. She stopped and waved to the fans. She noticed how mainly of them were on their feet cheering. She loved it. She then went over to the podium and shook Nicole's and Taylor's hands. She then got up on the top podium to recieve her medal.   
  
Ellie smiled as she watched Taylor and Nicole reciever their medals. Then it was time for her to recieve her first gold. She bent her medal down and the medal was placed around her neck. They all were given yellow flowers.   
  
"Here are the US champions...and The three Ladies who will be representing the UNited States of America at the 2006 Olympic games this winter." The announed told the crowd.   
  
Ellie felt like she was dreaming as she looked around the arena. She was going to the Olympics.   
  
All of the girls stood on the podium as they held their flowers and they heard their National Anthem. When the anthem was over the girls once again smiled and waved to the crowd. They all got up on the top podium as the press continued to take pictures.   
  
"Hey...On the count of three, blow a kiss." Nicole suggested.   
  
"Okay." Ellie said. Taylor just giggled.   
  
"One...two...three." Nicole said and all three girls blew a kiss to the crowd.   
About ten minutes later, the girls got off the ice only to get jumped by several sports and newspaper reporters. Ellie and Taylor got pulled to the side by ABC news for a quick interview.  
  
"Welcome back. I am standing here with the gold and silver medalists, Taylor Johnson and Maire Craft." Jennifer (the news reporter) said to the camera and then turned to the girl. "Hi girls how are you doing?"  
  
"Pretty good." Taylor and Ellie said, but not in unison.   
  
"Now, how does it feel to be on the Olympic skating team?" Jennifer asked.   
  
"It feels awesome." Taylor said. "We both talked about how awesome it would be to make the Olympic teams, but it is so much better than I ever thought."  
  
"Oh yeah." Ellie added.   
  
"Now, you two were expected to win this competition and I think that people now are probably thinking that you two will be on the podium at the Olympics as well." Jennifer told them. "What do you have to say about that?"  
  
"That is one of things we hope to do, maybe even a clean sweep this year, but its one of those things were anything can happen so no one should get the idea that two medals have already been taken." Ellie said.  
  
"And it is one of those things we all want to win, but don't want to go around and get a huge ego about it and then do something to mess up." Taylor said. "We are taking it one day at a time right now and just praying for the best."  
  
"Well good luck to you this season." Jennifer told them to end the report.   
  
"Thank you." They said and then walked off to go find their friends.  
  
"Don't you think it is really crazy people already think we are going to win at the Olympics already? I mean, we just made the team." Taylor said.   
  
"Really crazy." Ellie agreed.   
  
"But, I think you and Nicole are the two best people to be going to the Winter Games with." Taylor smiled at her teammate.  
  
"Thanks Taylor." Ellie said. "I was just about to say the same thing." She was really glad that the other two skaters on the team were Nicole and Taylor.  
  
Ellie ended up getting jumped by a newspaper reporter shortly after she had met up with Ethan and Lizzie again. The whole night was crazy...But a night that Ellie would remember the rest of her life. And if making the Olympic team was this awesome, she only thought about how much better it would be if she actually won a medal.  
  
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"Ellie!" Ethan shook her to wake her up the next morning. "Ellie! Wake up."  
  
Ellie opened her eyes and stared at her brother. "What?"  
  
"Look...Look at this..." Ethan put a news paper in front of her face. "We are stars!"  
  
Ellie took the paper and looked at it. It was the sports seaction and there was a picture of Ellie and Ethan from the night before. The article told about the three girls who made the Olympic team. It also had pictures of all of them with their coaches and friends after they won. The picture of Ellie and Ethan was perfect and they looked so much alike in it, even though it was a black and white photo.  
  
"Pretty cool there Ethan." Ellie said handing the paper back to him. "Now let me get back to sleep!"  
  
"Okay sis." Ethan said. He then went back to admiring the picture.  
  
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Two nights later, it was time for the Exhibition of all the Olympic contenders. Ellie loved exhibitions, it was the time she could go free with her skating, and if she fell, who cared? There were no judges. Not to mention she was going to try something very unique in her exhibition program that night.  
  
Ellie watched the Nicole skate to her program of "Quit Playin' Games With My Heart" by the Backstreet Boys. It was pretty interesting to watch. Nicole was an awesome skater. Ellie heard that she could do a triple axel, and may even be doing it in the Olympic Games, but she did not do it at Nationals so she could for sure get a place on the Olympic team.  
  
"Hey Maire..." Ellie heard a voice say. She turned around and saw Jason Storm, the silver medalist in the Men's divison and her old rink-mate, standing there.  
  
"Hey Jason." Ellie said shyly. She had not seen him since she moved back home from Texas. They trained together and even thought about going into pair skating together, but decided against the idea. Jason was only nineteen years old, but one of the best male figure skaters that she had ever met. Jason was tall and muscular, he had shady blonde hair and goregous blue eyes. Ellie thought he was just plain out hot, but they were just friends. "How are you?"  
  
"Pretty good." He smiled at her.  
  
"Not the smile...Not the smile..." Ellie thought to herself. His smile was awesome and it just made her melt.  
  
"I haven't seen you in a while." Jason said as he sat down next to her on a chair. "Its been so strange around the rink without you."  
  
"Yeah, I missed you too." Ellie said.   
  
Jason leaned closer to her. "Is it cool to call you 'Ellie' in public, or is that still a no?" He whispered.  
  
Ellie laughed. She used to kick Jason whenever he would call her by her first name at competitons. She used to only let a very few people call her "Ellie' but that was all different now. "Its alright. Everyone knows my first name."  
  
"Oh, okay." Jason said. "So how have you been?"  
  
"Good." Ellie told him. "You?"  
  
"I've been alright." He replied. "So when are you leaving?"  
  
"Sometime tomorrow." Ellie replied.  
  
"Oh..." Jason said. "Are you going to an other competitions this year?"   
  
"A couple...why?" She replied.  
  
"Just wondering." Jason said quickly.  
  
They talked a few more minutes. Pretty much about nothing, but Ellie thought it was nice to talk to him again.  
  
"Jason!" Jerry called from the door. "You're on next!"  
  
"Coming." Jason called. He then turned back to Ellie. "You'll watch me, right?"  
  
Ellie smiled. "Of course I will."   
  
Jason smiled at her once more. "And how about a hug for good luck?"  
  
"Alright." Ellie said as she stood up and gave Jason a hug.   
  
"Thanks." Jason said. He then left the locker room.   
  
Ellie sat back down and smiled. For once he was the one who asked her for a hug. She was the one who normally asked for a hug or something before she went to do a program or something.   
  
Her attention then turned back to the monitor as she watched Jason get onto the ice. The crowd loved him as you could tell by all the cheering. He began his program of, "Tearin' Up My Heart" by Nsync. It was a very interesting program, he had a quad toe loop and a quad salchow in the program. He had been named the "Quad Prince" since he thought the quad was such an easy jump for him.  
  
"Hey girl." Taylor said as she sat down next to Ellie as she watched Jason skate.  
  
"Hey Taylor." Ellie said.   
  
"Nice costume." Taylor said looking at Ellie's outfit for her routine. "What exactly are you going to do?"  
  
Ellie looked down at her outfit. It was a a pair of tight black pants and metallic green spagetti strap tank top. She laughed. "Just guess."  
  
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Never mind...I know...I know." She said.   
  
"When are you going to skate?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Right after Caley Philips and Thomas Andrews." Taylor told her. She could tell by the look on Ellie face that she had no idea who the pair was. "You know, that ice dancing pair who won the bronze."  
  
"Oh yeah." Ellie said.   
  
Taylor and Ellie watched Jason finish up his program on the monitor.  
  
"Damn that boy is fine." Taylor said.   
  
"You could say that I guess." Ellie said, not wanting anyone to know that she thought he was hot.   
  
Taylor gave Ellie a look like she knew something. "Okay Ellie."  
  
The two girls continued to talk as they watched the other skaters preform. Taylor was called to go do her program about fifteen minutes later. Ellie then decided to go finsih getting herself ready since she would be going on pretty soon; She was the second to last to go for the exhibition.  
  
Ellie tied her wavy hair into a half ponytail and then checked her make-up to make sure it still looked alright. She then took her black skates and laced them up. She was soon called to get to the carpeted area. She looked at herself in the mirror one final time and smiled. She was so ready to skate her new exhibition program she made up a long time ago, and was now ready to show it to everyone.  
  
Ellie waited while she watched Heather Sallor and John Beyer, the gold medal winners in pair skating, finished their program. They soon got off the ice and both of them wished Ellie luck. Ellie was then told to get onto the ice.  
  
"Skating next is the new US champion...Maire Craft!" The speaker announced.  
  
Ellie smiled as she skated out to the center of the ice. She got really excited, she had the attiude, the outfit, and a great crowd. She knew she would do a wonderful job with her program. She crossed one foot over the other and then began to look down.  
  
The music to Britney Spears, "You Drive Me Crazy" began and Ellie immeditatly began skating to the upbeat song. She really got the crowd going with the sassy way she skated to the song. She did her fancy footwork, as well as her favorite jumps and spins. For her final jump, which was supposed to be a triple salchow was going to be a little different.   
  
Ellie skated backwards and then sprang into the air, but instead of rotating three times, she prefectly rotated four times and landed it prefectly. She finally landed the quad salchow which was something she had been working on for three years.  
  
Ellie finally ended her prefectly skated program. The music ended and Ellie just stood on the ice with her hands abover her head, watching as all of the audience cheered for her. She then jumped up in the air; she was so excited that she finally landed her first quad outside of practice.   
  
Ellie waved and blew kisses to the crowd. She loved the crowd's reaction that she always got after she skated. She then got off the ice and was greeted by Jason.  
  
"Was that a quad I saw you do on the monitor?" Jason asked.   
  
"It sure was." Ellie smiled as she sat down on a nearby bench to put her skate guards on.   
  
"You do that a couple more times and you may get the title of 'Quad Princess'." Jason teased her.   
  
Ellie and Jason began to walk back to the locker room when they were stopped by ABC sports news. Ellie was asked to do a quick interview.  
  
"Welcome back, I am standing here with Maire Craft who has just become the first female skater to land a quadrupile salchow in the public eye." Jennifer (blonde reporter lady) said. She turned to Ellie was smiled when it was mentioned that she landed a quad. "Now, how long have you been working on this jump?"  
  
"About three years." Ellie replied.   
  
"Do you think you may have a quad in your program at the Olympics in February?" Jennifer pressed on.  
  
Ellie shook her head. "No, the quad for me is just a fun jump, I don't think I will have it in my program unless times come to drastic measures." Ellie said.  
  
Ellie wrapped up the interview fairly quickly. She was happy to land the quad, but she wasn't a show off about these kinds of thing.   
  
Ellie then had to run backstage to quickly change into a red, white and blue striped shirt and then booket back from the dressing room to get on the ice for the grand finale, which all the champions where to take part in.  
  
When the night was finally over, Ellie still tried to convince herself that she was not dreaming. Everything was going to prefectly, but she was happy that everything was going her way for once. She only wondered what the downfall would be.  
  
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Well there you go! I promise to poast the next chapter sometime this week. I am getting so many more ideas for this story. And it will fully cover the Olympic games. Well love ya all! 


	12. Stress...And A Really Awful Party

Hey guys. New chapter. I was really disappointed that the last chapter didn't get many reviews...but then again...it wasn't that good of a chapter I admit. It was too fairy tale-ish (like everything is going Ellie's way), but it had to be in there. But I think you will find this chapter much more...interesting. A lot more drama happens. Hope you like it...Enjoy!  
  
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Ellie and Lizzie left their hotel room the next morning and met Ethan at the elevator. They were all ready to go to the airport to go back home.   
  
The airport on Sunday morning was usually slow, and that was the exact same way it was that chilly November morning.   
  
Ellie stood in line to get on the plane. She then heard a familar voice call her name. She turned to see Jason walking toward her.  
  
"Hey Jason." Ellie smiled as he got closer to her. "Whats up."  
  
"Not much." Jason said. "I just saw you over here and decided to come say a quick hi."  
  
"Well it was nice to see you again before I left." Ellie said.   
  
"It sure was." Jason said. He just kind of stood there a moment. "You better get back in line."  
  
Ellie nodded. "I guess so. I'll see you in February."  
  
Jason gave her an evil look. "It may be a little sooner than that."  
  
"Um...alright." Ellie said a little confused by want he meant. "Well, bye."  
  
"See ya." Jason said as he then turned and walked off.   
  
"Who was that?" Lizzie asked as Ellie rejoined her in the line.  
  
"Just a friend." Ellie said.  
  
"Oh really?" Lizzie smirked. "Alright..."  
  
"Lizzie I'm serious." Ellie protested.  
  
"I believe you..." Lizzie kept the same evil smirk on her face. "I'll just harrass you about it later."  
  
"You are so mean." Ellie said rolling her eyes.   
  
"I know." Lizzie said.   
  
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They all got home later that night. They were all extremely exhausted from the trip, but luckily they all did all the make-up work while they were away, so they could just go right to sleep; since their parents were being mean and said they had to go to school the next morning.   
  
"Ethan!" Ellie yelled the next morning as she was trying to wake up Ethan. She then opened the door and saw Ethan still sleeping on his bed. "Ethan, wake up." She shook his shoulder.   
  
"I'm tired." Ethan complained.   
  
"Come on...If you don't hurry up we can't go to Starbucks." Ellie told him.  
  
"Fine...I'm getting up." Ethan said. He then sat up in his bed and ran his hand threw his hair.   
  
"Meet you downstairs in a few minutes." Ellie said as she left Ethan's room.   
  
Ellie then went back into her bedroom and grabbed her backpack and then went back downstairs to wait for Ethan.  
  
"Okay...Ready." Ethan said as he came down the stairs with her backpack.  
  
"Alright." Ellie then grabbed her car keys. "Mom! We're leaving!"  
  
"See you two later." Their mother called from upstairs.  
  
They got into Ellie's car and then left their house. As always, Ethan was half awake when Ellie was ordering thier coffee. After Ellie gave Ethan his coffee (which quickly woke him up) he looked over at his twin.  
  
"Ellie, where is your coffee?" Ethan asked.  
  
Ellie stopped for a red light. "I didn't have enough money for two coffees." Ellie said slowly. "Plus, I need to stop drinking that stuff anyway."  
  
"Oh, you could have asked me for money." Ethan said taking another sip. He thought a minute. Ellie not having coffee in the morning? That was something new. But why?  
  
"I'll quote you on that." Ellie said with a laugh.  
  
Ellie and Ethan got to school a little late that morning. But as soon as they walked into their first period class, both of them got a little shock.  
  
"Surprise!" The class yelled as Ellie walked into the room. She was shocked to see that the classroom was decoracted with Olympic rings, American flags, along with red, white, and blue crey paper. There was a banner that was on the board that said, "Way To Go Ellie!" in big letters and several people had signed it.   
  
"Wow!" Ellie said with a smile. "This is a surprise."  
  
"Well, thats the whole point." Miranda teased.  
  
"You did this all for me?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Its not every day that one of our classmates wins a National title." Mark told her. "And goes to the Olympics!"  
  
Ellie blushed. "You all watched that?" She asked.   
  
"Like yeah!" Miranda said. "Why wouldn't we?"  
  
Ellie smiled. "Thanks you guys. This is really sweet."   
  
Mr. Bell (their English teacher) came forward. "But what would it be without a cake?" He motioned to a nearby table where there was a huge cake.   
  
Ellie was still surprised that Mr. Bell had even let them throw her this party. But she wasn't complaining at all.   
  
The rest of the period, the class ate cake and talked. Ellie was happy she had friends that would do something like this for her.   
  
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For the next two weeks, everyone in school, even people she barely ever talked to began to act like they were best friends with her. Even Lizzie, Miranda, Gordo and Kate seemed to be acting different around her. The winter games were still about two and a half months away, but Ellie began to get really stressed about them, considering the fake friendliness she was experiencing at school, an over load on homework, and Timothy being extrememly hard on her at practice. Needless to say, she was really stressed out.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Mark said towards the end of Thursday afternoon. "Can I talk to you?"  
  
"Sure." Ellie said. "Whats up?"  
  
Mark looked really nervous. "Listen, I was wondering if you would like to...you know...go somewhere after school today..."  
  
Ellie thought a minute. Mark barely talked to her before now, and he was asking her on a date? "I have to train today...sorry."  
  
"How about after your done?" Mark offered. "I could pick you up."  
  
Ellie shook her head. "I don't think that will work."  
  
"Okay." Mark looked a little disappointed. "Well, there is a party going on tomorrow at my cousin's house."  
  
"I guess I could go." Ellie said slowly.  
  
"Cool." Mark brightened a bit. "I'll call you later with the details."  
  
***************************************************************************  
  
It was finally the end of the longest Friday and Ellie was glad to be going home for the weekend. She was at her locker when Mark came up to her.  
  
"Hey Ellie, I'll pick you up around 8:00?" He said.   
  
Ellie almost dropped her pre-cal book. "Excuse me?"  
  
"The party is tonight...remember?" Mark reminded her.   
  
The party! How could she forget? "Yeah, I'll be ready."  
  
"Cool. See you then." Mark said as he then walked off.  
  
Ellie wanted to cry. Her skating practice the night before was awful, and her whole say was just plain out bad. She had woken up late (so late that Ethan was the one waking her up), two of her nails broke, she forgot to do her homework in two subjects (and it happened to be the one day it was collected) and she got a 72 on a test in pre-cal. All she wanted to do was sleep.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Lizzie said as she and Kate walked up to her locker.   
  
"Hey guys." Ellie said with a sigh.   
  
"Whats wrong?" Kate asked.   
  
"Nothing." Ellie blinked to fight her tears. "Just a little stressed. Thats all."  
  
"Oh...well are you going to that party tonight?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"Yeah...Please tell me you two are going." Ellie said.   
  
"We are." Lizzie said with an evil smile.  
  
"Cool." Ellie said, wondering what was up with the evil look on Lizzie's face. "I'll see you there." She then picked up her backpack and went to go meet Ethan at her car.   
  
"Ellie, can we stop at Wendy's really quick?" Ethan asked a few minutes later.  
  
"Yeah, if you have money." Ellie said.   
  
"I do." Ethan said.   
  
"Okay..." Ellie made a small detour to Wendy's. She ordered something for both her and Ethan. She got the food and then drove to their house.  
  
Ethan took their food in and set it down on the table. "Here Elle." He handed her the bag with her food in it, along with her drink.  
  
"Thanks." Ellie said. She unwrapped her burger and just looked at it for a minute. She then began to cry.  
  
Ethan stopped eatting. "Whats wrong?"  
  
"Nothing." Ellie said. She then got up and ran up to her room. She threw herself onto her bed and began to cry. She couldn't eat fast food. What was she thinking? She continued to cry and eventually feel asleep.  
  
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Ellie heard a knock at her bedroom door. "What?"  
  
"Ellie! Mark's here." Ethan's voice came from the other side of the door.   
  
Ellie looked at the clock. It was 8:00 exactly. "I'll be down in a couple minutes."  
  
"Okay." Ethan said.   
  
"Just great...Now I'll look like a piece of trash at this stupid party." She said to herself as she said as she rolled off her bed and stood up and walked over to her closet.  
  
Ellie pulled out her zebra print jeans and a black shirt that said, "Real" on it. She quickly changed and then pulled her hair into a high ponytail and put braided hair extenions in it. Then as she was quickly putting on eye glitter, she noticed there were huge bags under her eyes. To fix that, she took out her contacts and put on her cute cat-eyed glasses on, which luckily went very well with her outfit. She quickly put on lip-gloss and then put her black heeled boots on. She then grabbed her purse and ran downstairs.  
  
"Hey Ellie." Mark smiled at her as she came into the front hall where he was talking to Ethan.  
  
"Hi." Ellie said. She had to admit that for once, Mark looked pretty handsome. He had on khaki pants, and a black sweater, his hair was also gelled and acutally under control which made him look quite mature.  
  
"You look nice." Mark said as he looked at her.   
  
"Thanks." Ellie said. Apparently she looked better than she thought, or Mark was just being nice. "You do too."  
  
"Well, lets get going." Mark said. All there of them left the house and got into Mark's black SUV. They then set out for the party.  
  
They finally got there and Ellie was still wishing that she had faked sick or something. She didn't want to be there.  
  
"Want me to get you a drink?" Mark asked.   
  
"No thank you." Ellie replied. She noticed that even though it was early, people still had gotten into some beer.   
  
"Okay." Mark said. He then walked off to go join his other friends.   
  
Ellie stood their all by herself, Ethan had gone off with Claire somewhere and she saw no sign of Lizzie or Kate anywhere.  
  
"Ellie!" She heard someone call. It was Lita Henderson, another one of her new "friends".  
  
"Hey Lita." Ellie forced a smile.  
  
"How are you doing?" Lita asked.   
  
"I'm alright, you?" Ellie said as she coughed. She then noticed that Lita had a cigerette in her hand.   
  
"Oh sorry." Lita said, she then put it behind her back. "How do you like the party?"  
  
"Its great..." Ellie lied.   
  
"Well, glad to see you are having fun." Lita said, she then walked off leaving Ellie alone again.  
  
"Ellie?" She heard a familar voice a few minutes later. She turned to see Miranda and Gordo standing there.  
  
"Hey guys." Ellie smiled a little.  
  
"Have you seen Lizzie or Kate anywhere?" She asked.   
  
"No, I haven't." Ellie said.   
  
"Oh, we were supposed to meet up here. Maybe they found something better to do." Miranda told her.   
  
"Yeah, maybe." Ellie said.   
  
She conitinued to talk with the two of them a few more minutes, they then went to find a phone to call Lizzie.   
  
Ellie sat down on a nearby couch. Many people are here where drunk and acting stupid. She wondered where Ethan was. A few minutes later, Mark came and sat down next to her.   
  
"Hey baby." He said, it was obvious he had been drinking. "You look so alone over here."  
  
"No, I'm fine." She lied.   
  
"Come on." He pulled her up. "Lets go dance."  
  
Ellie followed him as he pulled her to the middle of the dance floor. He pulled her close to him and they began to dance to the slow make-out music that was playing. Ellie hated every second of it.   
  
Mark began to kiss her neck. "Ellie, I want you." He said.   
  
Ellie didn't say anything at first. But he continued to kiss her, and it made her feel very uncomfortable. "Mark, please just stop."  
  
"Oh no...You know you want me." Mark said.   
  
"No, I don't." Ellie said firmly.   
  
"Yes you do...Come on, maybe we can find a free bedroom." Mark said as he began to pull her towards the stairs.   
  
"Mark...NO!" Ellie screamed. A few people turned to see what was going on.   
  
"You know you want me." Mark said.   
  
"No, I want to go home!" Ellie then slapped him. She then turned and walked toward the door.   
  
"Hey!" Mark yelled at her as she walked out to the front lawn. "Don't you walk away from me."   
  
"I can do whatever I want!" Ellie told him firmly.   
  
"I can do who ever I want." Mark told her with a mean glare in his eye. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."  
  
Ellie was extremely scared, but tried to not let it show. "No, I'm going home...I'll walk if I have to!"  
  
She then turned and walked a few more feet ahead, but Mark grabbed her arm.   
  
"Fine, if thats how you want it to be done." Mark said as he then pushed her onto the ground. He then got on top of her and pinned her arms down onto the ground so she couldn't get up. He then forcefully kissed her.  
  
Ellie couldn't hold back her tears anymore. Why was she so stupid? Now she was going to get into a mess of trouble. She cried as Mark began to feel up her shirt. Ellie hated that he was doing this to her...she hated even thinking someone would do this to her...but now that it was really happening to her...it was worse than she ever thought something like this would be.  
  
"Stop crying." Mark demanded. He then kissed her again and began to unbutton her pants. "You'll enjoy this. You know you want me."  
  
Ellie wanted it all to be over. She just continued to cry, wishing he would stop.   
  
"Get off of her!" Ellie heard someone yell. She then felt Mark's body weight be lifted from her.   
  
Ellie stood up quickly to see what was going on. Immediately she saw Lizzie and Kate run to her side and hug her.   
  
"Its okay Ellie." Lizzie told her crying friend.  
  
Ellie could see two figures beating up Mark who was now on the ground.   
  
"You stay away from her!" One of them yelled as he kicked Mark one last time. That voice was so familar. But who was it?  
  
They two guys who beat up Mark came over to them. She quickly noticed that one of them was Shawn, Kate's new boyfriend. But she couldn't tell who the other one was.   
  
"Ellie." The mysterious figure hugged her. "Are you okay?"  
  
Ellie finally realized who it was. "I'm fine Jason." She said.   
  
"Come on, lets get out of here." Miranda said.   
  
Jason, Ellie, Lizzie, and Gordo all got into Lizzie's navy Tahoe (But Lizzie asked Gordo if he would drive so she could talk to Ellie), while Kate, Miranda, and Shawn all got into Miranda's white Saturn and then they all began to drive away from the party.  
  
Jason held Ellie as he cried. "Its okay. Don't cry Ellie." He hushed.   
  
Ellie cried a few more minutes, but then stopped. "Jason, what are you doing here?"  
  
"Well, we were going to surprise you at the party." Lizzie told her as she turned to the back seat where the two where sitting.   
  
"What?" Ellie asked.   
  
"I wanted you to know that I have transfered to your rink to train for the Olympics." Jason told her. "Lizzie and I planned this little surprise."  
  
"Yeah, see Kate and I were going to pick him up from the airport and then bring him to the party to see you." Lizzie told her.   
  
"Well I'm really glad you got there when you did..." Ellie began to cry again and got another comforting hug from Jason.   
  
"Ellie, that was not your fault, so don't think it was in anyway." Gordo told her, still keeping his eye on the road.   
  
"Yeah, Mark is an asshole anyway." Lizzie said.   
  
"How could I be so stupid?" Ellie sobbed. "I should have left when I noticed there was drinking going on at the party."  
  
"Ellie, its okay." Jason said. "We got their in time so nothing happened."  
  
Ellie continued to cry the rest of the way home. She knew it wasn't her fault. But she still felt like a moron.  
  
Gordo pulled up to Ellie's house about twenty minutes later. "Do you want us to stay with you?" He asked. "I'm sure our parents would understand."  
  
"If you could I would really appreciate it." Ellie said wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "My parents are home though."  
  
"Maybe you should just come to my house then." Lizzie offered. "I know my mom will not mind."  
  
"I think that might even be better." Ellie smiled a little. "Just let me go get a few thigs." Ellie then got out of the car and went inside her house very quickly.   
  
Lizzie pulled out her cell phone. "Miranda?...Hey, listen you wanna spend the night?...Yeah, Ellie is coming...Sure Kate can come...Okay...see you there...Bye." Lizzie hung up the cell phone, and then dialed another number. "Hey mom...Ellie, Miranda and Kate are going to spend the night...Yes we will be quiet...Ellie's parents are out of town and she doesn't want to be home alone...okay see you in a few...bye." She turned off her phone and put it back in her pocket.  
  
"I'm guessing your mom said it was alright?" Gordo said.   
  
Lizzie laughed. "Yeah, she did." She then turned back to Jason. "Where are you staying?"   
  
"With my cousin...He actually lives pretty close by here...Think you could drop me off?" Jason said.   
  
"No problem..." Gordo said. "And then Lizzie, you will have to drop me off."   
  
"Okay." Lizzie agreed. "And Jason..."  
  
"Yeah?" He said.   
  
"Ellie is lucky to have a 'boyfriend' like you." Lizzie said.   
  
"Remember, don't say anything about that...Not now at least." Jason told her.   
  
"Oh yeah...Right..." Lizzie said.   
  
"But thank you." Jason said. He had planned to tell Ellie he loved her that night, but considering what happened, he decided against it. He had decided to train with Ellie the remained of the season because everything in Texas seemed boring without her around, so he moved to where she was. Even it was was for only a few months.  
  
Ellie came back to the car with her sports bag, filled with stuff she would need for the next morning.  
  
Gordo then followed Jason's directions to his cousin's house. They all said goodbye to Jason as he got his bags and met his cousin at the door. Gordo then drove to his house and gave Lizzie the keys to her car back. Then Lizzie drove herself and Ellie to her house, where Kate and Miranda where already waiting.  
  
The girls went up to Lizzie's room and changed into their pajamas. They then talked for hours about boys (lightly, not wanting to upset Ellie), clothes, and school. Ellie felt that for the first time since she had gotten back to school, things were like they used to be. They went to sleep around 1:30, but then suddenly, something rang at 3:58 which woke all of them up.  
  
Ellie realized it was her cell phone. She reached for it on Lizzie's desk and answered it. "Hello?" She moaned.   
  
"Hello, Miss Ellen Craft?" An unfamilar voice said.   
  
"Yes, who is this?" Ellie asked, suddenly becoming awake.   
  
"This is Doctor John Mayz. I'm calling about your brother, Ethan Craft..." The voice said.   
  
"Is something wrong?" Ellie asked.   
  
"I would prefer to tell you in person, could you please come to the hospital at once?" He told her.  
  
"I'm on my way." Ellie said. She then turned off her phone and stood up.   
  
"Whats wrong?" Kate asked.  
  
"Ethan is in the hospital." Ellie said as she began to put her shoes on. She didn't care if she was going somewhere in her pajamas, she was worried about Ethan.  
  
"Is he okay?" Miranda asked.   
  
"I hope so." Ellie said.   
  
The door suddenly opened and it startled all the girls. It was only Lizzie's mom in her bath robe.  
  
"Girls, what was that noise?" She asked them.  
  
"I'm sorry Mrs. McGuire, it was my cell phone." Ellie said.   
  
"Is something wrong?" Mrs. McGuire asked sounding worried.   
  
"Yes...But I don't know what." Ellie said. "Could you please give me a ride to the hospital?"  
  
"Sure I can." Mrs. McGuire said. "Meet me downstairs in ten minutes."  
  
"Ellie we are coming with you." Lizzie said.   
  
"No...Stay here and sleep." Ellie said.   
  
"No way...We are coming with you." Kate told her.   
  
Ellie opened her mouth to protest, but it was too late, all the girls were up and getting there shoes on. Ellie was happy she had friends willing to get up in the middle of the night to go to the hospital with her.  
  
Thirty minutes later, all four girls walked into the hospital with messy pontails, sweatshirts, and pajama pants. Ellie walked to the front desk with Mrs. McGuire.  
  
"Excuse me?" Ellie said to the receptionist. "I am here to see my brother."  
  
"What is your brother's name?" She asked.   
  
"Ethan Craft." Ellie told her.   
  
The red haired receptionist began to look through the computer. "Are you Ellen...his twin sister?" She asked. Ellie nodded. The receptionist looked a little upset as she said, "You need to go talk to Dr. Mayz on the fifth floor. He knows you are coming."  
  
"Thank you." Ellie said. She then motioned for her friends to follow her. They all got up and followed Ellie to the elevators.  
  
Was Ethan alright? Why did the receptionist look sad when she told Ellie she had to talk to Dr. Mayz? What happened? Ellie had to know all the questions to these answers. And quickly.  
  
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You know the drill...You review...I post next chapter. Peace! 


	13. At the Hopsital

OMG! I have just gone through a freaking stressful week! As if my term paper wasn't stressful enough, my friend crush my floppy disk that had my whole paper on it! Luckily, I had saved most of it on a computer at school. But argh...Fights with friends, explaining to my teacher why my paper was late, and then studying for exams all add up to a lot of freaking stress. Therefore, I have no idea how long it will take me to get the next chapter written. But I am hoping it will be soon. And thanks for all the reviews! Keep them coming.   
The first part of the chapter is told from Ethan's POV. Then back to normal. And remember...I do not own any of the characters, I do not get payed for writing this...so just enjoy this chapter.  
  
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"Hey Mark, whats up?" Ethan said as he answered the door at around 8:00.  
  
"Not much. Are you two ready to go?" Mark asked as he came into their house.  
  
"I know I am, but I'm not sure about Ellie." Ethan said. "I'll go check on her."  
  
Ethan walked up the stairs and then turned to go down the long hallway that led to Ellie's room. He knocked on the door once, but no answer. He knocked again, a little louder. "Ellie?"  
  
"What?" He heard her voice come from the other side of the door.  
  
"Mark's here!" Ethan said. Was Ellie in a bad mood or what?  
  
"I'll be down in a few minutes." Ellie yelled.   
  
"Okay." He said. He then turned to go back downstairs. Why was she getting mad at him again? He could understand that she was under stress, but why did she have to be getting upset with him?  
  
"Is she ready yet?" Mark asked as Ethan came back downstairs.  
  
"No...I think she may just have gotten out of the shower." Ethan said.   
  
The boys continued to talk and then Ellie came down the stairs about ten minutes later.   
  
"Hey, you look nice." Mark said.  
  
"Thanks, so do you." Ellie said.   
  
Ethan looked at both of them. Mark had a strange look in his eyes, which he did not not like one bit. Ellie had a tired look in her eyes, she had lost the look of fire and spirit she had not even two weeks earlier. What was happening to her? It was like the stress she had was taking the life right out of her.   
  
They all went out to Mark's car and drove to the party. Ethan and Mark mainly talked while Ellie sat in the back seat looking out the window.   
  
Ethan and Ellie soon seperated at the party. Ethan had one beer, but then stopped after that. Normally at parties he would drink until he would black out. But lately, Ellie had been dragging him to church every Sunday morning, it had grown on him, so he still had his fun at parties, but he learned to limit it, which was something many of this friends had to learn to do.   
  
It was about an hour later that he notice Mark start dancing with Ellie. He just smiled to himself, and then went back to making out with Heidi.  
  
About ten minutes later when he looked up again he noticed that Ellie and Mark where both gone.   
  
"Sorry Heidi, I have to go find someone..." Ethan said as he picked up Heidi off his lap and then put her next to him and stood up.  
  
"I'll be waiting for you." Heidi said to him as he walked off.   
  
Ethan ran upstairs and checked all the bedrooms, getting a couple people mad in the process. He then ran back downstairs and literially ran into Nick (*remember the guy from chapter 4*).  
  
"Ethan! I'm so glad I found you!" Nick asked as he regained his balance.  
  
"Where's Ellie?" Ethan asked.   
  
"Thats why I was coming to find you. He tried to take Ellie to one of the bedroom's but she didn't agree with him, so she walked out on him." Nick explained.   
  
"What?" Ethan gasped. Mark was one of those guys who always got what he wanted. Ethan wanted to kick himself for not staying with his sister. "Where are they?"  
  
"Ellie ran outside, Mark followed her." Nick said. "I knew I couldn't take him alone, I also knew you might what you get him too."  
  
"I sure do...Lets go get him." Ethan said angerily.  
  
They went out the front door and looked around the front yard. They heard two cars driving quickly, Ethan noticed one of the cars that was speeding off had Lizzie's "Superstar" bumper sticker, which meant rhat Ellie had gotten away from Mark. They saw Mark slowly walking toward the porch.  
  
"Hey! Little help?" Mark yelled to them.   
  
Ethan walked quickly towards him with his fists clenched. "I'll help you alright." He then punched Mark as he got closer to him.   
  
Mark almost fell to the ground. He wiped his lip where Ethan had punched him, he was bleeding. He then looked at Ethan. "What gives man?"  
  
"You know what!" Ethan yelled. "You don't touch my sister."  
  
Mark straightened up and got right in Ethan's face. They both stared at each other intensily. "You know I get whatever girl I want...and tonight it happened to be Ellie. She wouldn't give it to me so I tried to take it myself." He told Ethan.  
  
Ethan wanted to rip his head off. As Mark was saying these things Ethan breathed heavily and clenched his fists.  
  
"I would have gotten it too, if her friends hadn't come." Mark said. "And I will get it next time, you can tell her that!"  
  
Ethan's anger boiled over. He pushed Mark so hard he fell on his back, then got on top of Mark and began punching him. Mark then turned it around and began hitting Ethan. This continued until someone pull Ethan off Mark and held him back, another person pulled up Mark and held him back as well.  
  
"Get off me!" Ethan yelled to whoever was holding him.   
  
"No! You two are out of control!" It turned out to be Nick who was restraining Ethan.   
  
Ethan tried to break free from Nick's hold, but Nick just held onto his arms tighter.  
  
"Just calm down!" Nick yelled at Ethan.   
  
Ethan lowered his head and began to calm down, and noticed Nick's grip getting a little looser. He then looked up and saw Mark and he wanted to beat his head onto the ground again. But Nick's grip tightened again.   
  
"Let me go!" Mark yelled at Travis Melrose who had a tight grip on him.  
  
"No way!" Travis yelled back.   
  
"I'm getting out of here!" Mark said.   
  
"Mark, you are way too drunk!" Travis told him. "Give me your car keys and I'll drive you home."  
  
"No way!" Mark yelled, still struggling franicly to get away from John. Suddenly, Mark passed out, partily because he was drunk, and partly because he had obviously gotten extremely tired from trying to break free from Travis's grip.  
  
"Is he okay?" Nick asked.  
  
"Yeah..." Travis said. "He's still breathing."  
  
"Will you let me go?" Ethan asked Nick again.  
  
"Are you going to attack Mark again?" Nick asked him.  
  
"I never hit anyone while they are down." Ethan said.  
  
"Fine then." Nick said as he let go of Ethan's arms.  
  
Ethan stepped away from Nick. "Can you give me a ride back to my house? I need to talk to Ellie."   
  
"Sure..." Travis said as he pulled something out of Mark's pocket. It was Mark's set of car keys. "I'll drive Mark's car."  
  
"Yeah we should take him home too." Nick said.   
  
Nick and Travis picked up Mark by his arms and dragged him over to his arm and dragged him into the car. John then went around and got into the drivers seat, while Ethan and Nick got into the car.  
  
They were driving home and everything was going fine, until Travis noticed a car was coming toward them.   
  
"What is this guy...Stupid?" Nick thought aloud.   
  
"Probably drunk." Travis said, wondering how he could avoid the car coming at them. He was sure they would get hit even if he pulled off to the shoulder side of the road. "Shit!"  
  
The next 30 seconds was probably the most terrifying moment of their lives. The car did eventually hit the drivers side of the car with so much force that it cause the car to flip over.   
  
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Ellie, along with Lizzie, Miranda, Kate and Mrs. McGuire all got off the elevator and quickly went over to the recpetionist desk. They were told to wait and the doctor would be with them shortly.  
  
"I hate hospitals." Ellie thought. She had been to the hospital several times before for various reasons.   
  
"What do you think could have happened?" Kate asked.  
  
"I don't know." Ellie said. "But I wish they would not take so long."  
  
A tall, dark haired man came into the waiting room and few moments later. He looked at his clipboard. "Miss Ellen Craft." He said.  
  
Ellie stood up, and so did Kate. "Yes, thats me."  
  
"I'm Dr. John Mayz, I called you eariler about your brother, Ethan." He said.   
"Yes, please tell me what happened." Ellie said. Kate standing at her side gave her a sense of comfort, but her stomach was still turning.  
  
"Well, he was invovled in a car accident early this morning." He told her. "Along with, Mark Green, Nick Landeson, and Travis Melrose...do you know any of those boys."  
  
"Yes I do." Ellie said.   
  
"Well, your brother is the most lucky out of all of them." He told her. "He broke his arm and has several cuts a bruises but he really should be alright."  
  
"What exactly happened?" Ellie asked. She was happen Ethan was alright, but what happened to the other three boys?  
  
"A drunk driver hit the driver's side of the car, which was the side that Travis and Mark were sitting." Dr. Mayz said. "Mark has a broken foot, a head injury along with several cuts and bruises. Nick's right arm is broken and he broke a rib, but his injuries are not life threating."  
  
"What about Travis?" Kate asked.  
  
The doctor sighed. "He was the one directly hit, he broke a few ribs and he has a bad head injury as well. He has slipped into a comb, and we don't know if he will pull through."  
  
Ellie lost the feeling in her legs. Kate caught her before she fell to the ground.  
  
"Ethan and Nick are awake right now if you would like to see them." He said.   
  
"Thank you." Ellie said.   
  
The doctor turned and left all of them in the waiting room. Travis was dying? That couldn't be possible.  
  
Lizzie went with Ellie to see Ethan. Ellie walked in and saw Ethan and Nick laying in hospital beds side by side. Ellie went and woke up Ethan.  
  
Ethan opened his eyes and smiled at Ellie. "Hey Elle." Ethan smiled a bit.  
  
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Oh just great." Ethan said. "It has always been my dream to be in a hospital bed."  
  
Ellie laughed a little. "Thats great."  
  
Nick suddenly stirred in his bed. "Ellie? Lizzie?" He said to them.  
  
Lizzie turned around to Nick. "Yes Nick."  
  
Nick tried to sit up but gave up after a few seconds. "How is Travis doing?" He asked both of them. "I heard the nurse say that Mark should be alright, but how's Travis?"  
  
Ellie shook her head. "They don't know if Travis is going to be able to pull through."  
  
Nick looked as pale as a sheet. "What?"  
  
Ellie tried to find words to explain Travis's condition, but couldn't. Nick and Travis where the captains of the basketball team, they also had been best friends since they were ten. Nick and Travis were two of those guys who knew what they wanted and never got drunk or did drugs or slept around with girls they barely knew, they knew it would get in the way of them playing for the NBA someday.   
  
Lizzie explained it to Nick the best she could. Nick looked terrifyed as she told him what they knew.   
  
"How long until we can get out of this place?" Ethan said a few minutes later.  
  
"I hope today." Ellie said.   
  
Ethan looked at Ellie. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. All the stress she was dealing with...and then this happens. She was probably dealing with more crap then he every would have to. "Ellie, why don't you go over to Lizzie's. Get some sleep."  
  
"No, I'm going to stay here." Ellie told him.  
  
"No...you are going to go get some sleep." Ethan told her firmly. "You look like you could use it too."  
  
Ellie looked at her twin. "Oh really? Thanks...I'll try to return the complement someday."   
  
Ethan smiled a bit. "I'm sorry, but please...Just go get some sleep."  
  
"Okay..." Ellie gave in. "But call me as soon as you can get out of here."  
  
"I will." Ethan smiled.   
  
Ellie and Lizzie then left their hospital room. Ellie looked at her watch...It was 5:45. She was so tired, but she didn't think she could sleep.   
  
"How are they?" Miranda asked as they got back to the waiting room.  
  
"They look alright." Lizzie said. "Nick seems pretty upset about Travis though."  
  
"Who wouldn't?" Kate said. "I mean, because of some moron, one of the best guys at our school could die."  
  
Ellie's eyes filled with tears. She hated to think about someone as young as Travis dying, and for somone elses mistake. She blinked to keep them back.  
  
"Ellie, would you like to come back to our house?" Mrs. McGuire asked.   
  
Ellie nodded. "Yes please."  
  
They all left the hospital and went back to Lizzie's house. All the girls were extremely tired, so they went up to Lizzie's room and quickly fell back asleep.   
  
The girls slept soundly for hours until Lizzie's phone rang and it woke them all up. Lizzie rolled over and picked it up.  
  
"Hello?" She said sleepily.  
  
"Lizzie? It's 2:30...did you just wake up?" It was Gordo.  
  
"Yes..." Lizzie sounded annoyed.   
  
"Whats wrong?...You're parents never let you sleep in this late." Gordo asked.  
  
"Ethan, Mark, Travis and Nick were in a car wreck last night. We were at the hospital for a couple hours." Lizzie told him.  
  
"Are they okay?" Gordo asked.   
  
"Ethan and Nick are, Mark is a little worse...But they are not sure if Travis is going to pull through." Lizzie told him. She sat up in her bed. She noticed all her friends were stretching in their sleeping bags.  
  
"Damn..." Gordo sounded a little worried. "I'll let you sleep. Sorry I woke you up."  
  
"Its okay...You didn't know." Lizzie told him.  
  
"Well, call me later." Gordo said. "I love you."  
  
"I love you too." Lizzie smiled a bit. "Bye." She then hung up the phone.  
  
"Lemme guess...Gordo." Miranda said as she rolled onto her stomach.  
  
"Yep." Lizzie said. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. "2:30, you think we should get up?"  
  
"No...I'm too damn lazy." Kate said stretching her left arm into the air.  
  
Ellie suddenly shot up. "2:30? I was supposed to be at the ice arena at 12:00 for training." Her eyes filled with tears. "I am so dead now."  
  
"Ellie, you have been on over load lately..." Lizzie said. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"  
  
"No, I'm fine...Its just, I need like two more hours in every day to get everything done." Ellie wiped her eyes.  
  
"Ellie, come on, we have all been stressed out before. You can talk to us." Kate told her.   
  
"You don't understand!" Ellie didn't try to hold back her tears now. "I mean, no one does...There's my school work...all the damn training...I barely get four hours of sleep every night! I can't eat anything that I want to anymore."  
  
Kate put her hand on Ellie's shoulder. "But all the training with pay off in a few months, won't it?"   
  
Ellie just shook her head. "It will, but that doesn't help the complete hell I am going through. I mean, I have to watch everything I eat. I am working on the same routine everyday, and everyday I seem to be getting worse and worse at everything I do."   
  
Kate handed her a tissue. "You could just quit if it is causing you so much stress."  
  
Ellie wiped her eyes. "That would just lead to more crap. The whole world thinks that Taylor and I are going to win the gold and silver. If I quit the press would have a field day. I want to do this, I am just getting so messed up. And to add on to everything, there is all the shit that happened last night."   
  
Ellie continued to cry, none of her friends knew what to do of say to her. She finally calmed down and looked at her friends.  
  
"I'm sorry..." She began.  
  
"Oh chica...You never have to apologize to us." Miranda told her.  
  
"Really Ellie." Lizzie said. "No matter what, you can always talk to us."  
  
"Thanks." Ellie wiped her eyes again with a tissue that Kate handed her.  
  
Lizzie sat up. "Hey Miranda. Do you remember homecoming last year?" She asked.  
  
Miranda smiled. "I sure do. I remember I was upset about not having a date for the dance, and Travis asked me to go with him. That was the greatest time I ever had at a school event."  
Kate smiled. "I remember freshman year I was cheering at a basketball game he missed a pass and it hit me in the face. I was so ticked off...But then he went and got me ice and made sure I was alright...I just couldn't stay mad at him."  
  
Lizzie giggled a little. "I remember that game...You threw your pom-poms at him. I almost died laughing."  
  
"Oh be quiet." Kate scolded a bit, but then smiled gentley.  
  
"There was one time he came with Ethan to pick me up from ice skating...They got restless and decided to get out on the ice with me. Oh my gosh...I think you can picture the rest of it." Ellie told them with a small smile.  
  
"Travis is one of those guys who was just awesome." Lizzie said. "I really hope he can pull through."  
  
"Me too." Miranda said.   
  
"He will." Kate said.   
  
Lizzie looked at her. "How do you know?"  
  
"If Ellie can recover from a head injury, remember everything about skating and win a National title all within a month, Travis can pull through this." She told them. "Plus, there are still to many things he needs to do."  
  
"I hope you are right." Ellie said.   
  
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You review...I post the next chapter of this saga! lol. 


	14. Too Many Things Left to Do

Finally! This chapter is done! I know it took forever, but here it is. Hope you enjoy it. And remember, I get nothing to writing this, and I do not own the characters. Peace y'all! And remember to review!  
  
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"Hey Ellie, hows Travis doing?" Jason asked as he sat down next to Ellie on the bench where she was putting her skates on.   
  
It had been a week and a half since the accident. Ethan, Nick and Mark where all fine and back to school. Of course Travis was the talk of almost every conversation around school.   
  
Ellie sighed as she finished tying her skate. "No change." She told him. She had gone to the hospital with Lizzie everyday after school to see if Travis was doing any better, but nothing had changed since last Friday.   
  
"Man, that sucks so badly." Jason said. "Do you think he'll pull through?"  
  
"I sure hope he will. I think the doctors have lost any hope that he will pull through." Ellie said as she stood up. "It will take a miracle for him to pull through right now."  
  
"Do you believe he can pull through?" Jason asked as they walked towards one of the entrances to the ice.  
  
"I..." Ellie began. "I hope so."  
  
"No, do you believe he can, not hope." Jason said as he took off his blue skate guards. "But do you have enough faith to know that if he can go this long without letting go, he will pull through."  
  
Ellie shook her head as she removed her own skate guards. "I don't know what I believe right now."   
  
Jason stepped onto the ice and sighed. Then turned to Ellie as she followed him onto the ice. "Then there is no way he can wake up."  
  
"How do you know?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Ellie, miracles can happpen." Jason told her. "But only when you believe it can happen."  
  
Ellie watched Jason turn and skate out to the other end of the ice. It was so true what he had said.   
  
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"Okay, what does x equal again?" Ellie asked Gordo later that night. She and Lizzie were at Gordo's house to study for the big pre-cal test they were having the next day.  
  
"Let me show you again." Gordo said taking the pencil from her and showing her how to do the problem again.   
  
Ellie still had a ton of stress going on, but her friends were supporting her one hundred percent through everything. Lizzie, Miranda, and Kate were always there to talk, Gordo was helping her with her school work, and Jason was there to help with her skating.   
  
Finally, at midnight, after working several problems, eating two large pizzas and drinking a twelve pack of Pepsi, the three teens finally felt ready to take on the test the next day.  
  
"Thanks for the help Gordo." Ellie said as she and Lizzie packed their backpacks up getting ready to leave.  
  
"No problem." Gordo smiled. "Now if you two don't pass the test tomorrow, I will kick both your butts, I do not care if you are girls."  
  
"You couldn't kick our butts, I would beat you up first." Lizzie teased.   
  
"Shut up." Gordo smiled at his girlfriend.   
  
"See you tomorrow Gordo." Ellie said, she then looked at her watch. "Actually just see you later, it already is tomorrow."  
  
Ellie and Lizzie walked out to Lizzie's car as soon as Lizzie and Gordo got done saying their ceremonial goodbye.  
  
"So, you still want to go see Travis tomorrow after school?" Lizzie asked as she started her car up.  
  
"I don't think so." Ellie sighed. "There is only so many times you can hear the doctors say, 'There is no change'."  
  
"True, but if you change your mind, just tell me, alright." Lizzie told her.  
  
"Alright." Ellie said.   
  
"So, how's training going?" Lizzie asked. "Only two more months until the big show."  
  
"I know." Ellie smiled a bit. "I'm excited, but you know, that mood varies a lot."  
  
"Yeah, but how are things with you and Jason?" Lizzie asked, thinking that the two were dating.  
  
"What do you mean?" Ellie asked a little confused.   
  
"Aren't you two, you know...dating?" Lizzie asked.   
  
"No, I don't think that will happen though." Ellie said, with a little bit oh disappointment in her voice.  
  
"Why's that?" Lizzie asked.   
  
"Because, he is two years older than me. He doesn't want to date a junior in high school." Ellie said. "Plus, I asked the other day how is 'love life' was and he said he had his eye on someone."  
  
"Oh really..." Lizzie said slyly as she pulled into Ellie's driveway.  
  
"Thanks for the ride." Ellie said as she opened the door to get out.  
  
"No problem see you later." Lizzie said as Ellie shut the door and walked up to the front door.  
  
Lizzie pulled out of the driveway and watched to make sure Ellie got inside. "Girl, how can you be so blind. The someone he has his eye on is you." She said outloud even though she knew Ellie couldn't hear her.  
  
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"Hey Gordo!" Ellie said three days later as she sat down next to Gordo in the cafeteria. "Look what I got..." She handed him a piece of paper.  
  
Gordo looked at it. It was the pre-calculus test from the day eariler, with a 94 marked at the top. "Hey Ellie, way to go!" Gordo exclaimed.   
  
"Thanks, I could not have done it without you." Ellie smiled and gave Gordo a small hug.   
  
"No problem." Gordo said.   
  
"Hey guys, whats up?" Miranda asked sitting down across from Ellie.  
  
"I just passed the pre-cal test." Ellie said.   
  
"Awesome chica." Miranda said as the two hit high fives.  
  
"Hey guys." Lizzie said as she, Kate and Shawn (Kate's boyfriend) all sat down. "So, what are we going to do tomorrow?"  
  
"Not sure, you all could come to my house and have an all night film fest." Kate offered. "Order pizza, pig out on junk food."  
  
"Sounds pretty cool." Miranda said.   
  
"Yeah." Everyone agreed.  
  
"What about you Ellie?" Shawn asked, he noticed she had not answered with the rest of them.  
  
"I can't. Jason and I were going to stay at the rink late to work on our exhibition programs." Ellie said. "Sorry guys."  
  
"Maybe we could come watch you practice for a while." Lizzie said. Ellie had not been able to hang out with them on the weekends for the last couple weeks due to training.  
  
"No, you guys have fun though." Ellie forced a smile. She hated not being able to spend time with them anymore.  
  
"Are you sure?" Miranda asked.   
  
"Yeah, I'm positive." Ellie said. "Its just practice."  
  
"But we like watching you skate." Kate told her. "Even if it is just practice."  
  
"No, really. Its cool, maybe next weekend though." Ellie said, she then picked up her backpack. "I have to go talk to Ethan really quick. "I'll see you all later though."  
  
"Bye." They all said as she walked away from the table.   
  
Ellie was able to hold her tears until she got into the vacant hallway. Even though the Olympics seemed to be ages away, she was training as though they were that weekend.   
  
"Hey Ellie." She heard someone say. She quickly wiped her eyes as she turned to see Nick standing there.  
  
"Hey Nick." Ellie said.  
  
"Whats wrong?" He asked.  
  
"Nothing, just thinking." Ellie said.  
  
"Oh." Nick said. He then stepped forward and gave her a hug. "Just incase you happen to be lying and something really is wrong."  
  
Ellie laughed a bit. "Thanks Nick."  
  
"Hey, you want to come to the library with me real quick?" Nick asked.   
  
"Why?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Because, no one is in their right now, we can talk there." He told her.   
  
"Okay." Ellie said. They began to walk down the hall. "So, been to the hospital lately?"  
  
"Thats kind of what I wanted to talk to you about." Nick said slowly. "I went there the other day, and left before I even got to Travis's room...Do you think we could go over their today, like together."  
  
"Sure we can." Ellie smiled.   
  
"Thank you." Nick said. "When should we go?"  
  
"I have to go to the rink at 5:30. So after school would be best." Ellie said. "Do you just want to come home with me and Ethan, and then just leave from my house. I can drop you off afterwards."  
  
"Okay, that would work out great." Nick said.   
  
"I guess we don't have to go to the library now." Ellie said, almost turning around.  
  
"Um, yes we do." Nick said, catching her off guard.  
  
"What?" Ellie asked.  
  
"Just come on." Nick said.   
  
They walked down the hall silently. Nick opened the door and let Ellie in, then he followed. They went and sat down on one of the empty couchs.   
  
"Whats up?" Ellie asked.   
  
"This." Nick said. He showed her a piece of paper, it was folded, very dirty like it had been in a pocket for a while. He handed it to her.  
  
"What is this?" Ellie asked as she looked at it, noticing the name "Ellie" written in black ink. She then took it from Nick.  
  
"Open it." Nick told her.  
  
Ellie opened it. It was a letter from someone. Ellie was curious as to wrote it, but decided to find out as she read. The letter read:  
  
Dear Ellie,   
Hey babe. Whats happening with you? Not to much is going on here, I was just thinking of you and decided to write you a note.   
Listen, I just want you to know how proud I am of you for making the Olympic team. It is awesome that the girl who wore my basketball jacket around for a day is going to be going to Italy and maybe even winning a medal. I think it is so cool that you have a chance at making your dreams of winning a gold medal come true and you are only seventeen. I just want you to know that no matter how much stress you are under, I am here for you. Even if it is like three in the morning and you just need to talk, you just have to call my cell. I am always here for you, no matter what.  
I also might as well take the time to tell you this. I really like you, a whole lot more than a friend. I am such a loser that I cannot tell you. I fell for you ever since I saw you the first day of school, I fell even harder for you when you stopped wearing all that make-up. You are goregous, and your personality just makes you more beautiful.   
I know you will probably never read this. But if you do, I guess right me back. Good luck in everything you do. And remember I am always here for you. Love, Travis.  
  
Ellie wiped a tear from her eye as she folded the note back up. "Where did you get this?" She asked Nick.  
  
"I found it in his room." Nick told her. "I just went there to sit in there the other day, you know, to find some comfort in all this, and I noticed this under his bed. I thought you might want to read it."  
  
"Thanks Nick." Ellie hugged him as the bell rang.  
  
"We better get going." Nick said.   
  
"Yeah." Ellie wiped her eyes again. "Meet me at my locker at the end of the day alright."  
  
"Okay." Nick smiled.   
  
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"Ready?" Ellie asked Nick as they stood outside of Travis's hospital room.  
  
Nick took a deep breath. "Yeah...I think so." He said.  
  
"Okay..." Ellie opened the door to the room. There were several ballons, flowers and get well soon cards. But Travis was still laying in the bed, which the slow heart monitor beeping away.  
  
"Hey Travis." Nick said as though Travis were awake. "It must suck to be in here all day long. So you gotta get out of here and back on the court."  
  
"Yeah Travis, the last game was a piece of crap without you there." Ellie added. She stood on the left side of the bed next to Nick.  
  
"You have no idea how many people miss you at school man." Nick told him. "You gotta get better."  
  
There was a silent pause. Ellie walked around the bed and took Travis's motionless hand.  
  
"You know Travis, I read that note. You said you would always be there for me, and I need you now." Ellie told him. "I need to know that you are going to be sitting in front of a wide screen TV watching me skate in two months. I'm not going without knowing you are alright."  
  
"We all need to know you will be alright Trave." Nick said. He then looked up. "God, you can't take Travis away from me, or Ellie, or anyone else. He hasn't done enough, he has too many things to do. You have to leave him here at least a few more years. Please."  
  
"Don't take him away from us right now." Ellie said as a tear ran down her cheek.  
  
"I'm here guys..." A very weak voice said.   
  
Ellie felt the grip on Travis's hand tighten. She looked and down at his hand and noticed he was holding onto her hand. She looked at his face, his eyes were slightly open.   
  
"Oh my gosh!" Ellie cried when she realized it. "Travis your alive!" She wanted to hug him tightly, but instead just light ran her fingers through his hair.   
  
"Travis!" Nick said. "Oh my...you're okay!"  
  
"You really didn't think I was going to die did you?" Travis asked. "I have too many things to do, too many people to annoying. I'm here to stay for a long time."   
  
"I sure am glad you are." Ellie smiled.   
  
"Why are you crying?" Travis asked as he looked at Ellie.  
  
"I thought you left us..." Ellie began.  
  
"Well, I am still here." Travis told her. "And staying her for a long time. You really think that I would miss you preform at the Olympics?"  
  
"Trave man, I'm so gald you're alright." Nick said.   
  
"Me too." Ellie smiled at him.  
  
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Alright, Travis is doing better. He lives! Should I continue this story? Or is it kind of going no where? Please review and tell me. Thanks. 


	15. This is all YOUR Fault!

Hey guys! Man, sorry it took so long to write this chapter. I just got caught up in a whole lot of things this summer and this story was the last thing I was thinking about. But now, as I am always on the computer and trying to do something other than homework, I will be writing a whole lot more. I promise. Just remember, I own nothing...Except for the characters Jason and Ellie. Other than that, I own NADA!   
  
Oh yeah, I want to clear something up. I got a review that said goths don't act like I was having Ellie act in the first few chapters. But I said that she DRESSED like a goth...I never said she WAS a goth. I just wanted whoever posted that to know my view on the comment. And please, don't review about the characters clothes or make-up. Or call me 'dense' because of what I was picturing the charter to be. Those two reviews just bugged me and I had to say something.  
  
I hope you like this chapter. Rememeber to review! And as you read this I am working on the next chapter! So be sure to come back and read it. The big chapter about the Olympics draws near...Aren't you excited. lol. Love ya!  
  
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With the relief that Travis was finally alright, everything seemed to once again be going well for Ellie. Now, there was only two months until the Opening Ceremonies on the Olympic games, and this was when it got tough. Ellie and her parents made the decision that instead of going to skate after school and staying up really late doing homework, she would go to school in the morning, leave to go to the rink for a few hours and then go home and catch up on the classes she missed during the afternoon. Which wasn't too bad since all her hard classes where in the morning. There where also four skating events she was going to in that time period and she had to get her programs even better than they already were.   
  
The next Monday, Travis was able to return to school on crutches with Nick and Ellie at his side. Everyone was thrilled, yet shocked to see him there.  
  
"Hey Travis, how is your first day back going?" Ellie asked as she passed him in the hall with Nick.  
  
"Oh just wonderful." Travis said with a smile.   
  
"Thats great." Ellie said as she zipped her backpack up. It was time for her to ge over to the rink that day. "Well, I'll see you all later."  
  
"Bye." Travis said as he continued to moved towards the lunch room.  
  
"Hey, I'll check up with you in a minute." Nick called to Travis.  
  
"Alright." Travis called back.  
  
"Hey Ellie. Can I ask you something?" Nick asked.  
  
"Sure, but can we walk and talk at the same time?" Ellie asked.   
  
"I can't see why not." Nick said as they began to walk towards the front entrance of the school. "I was just wondering, you aren't going to tell Travis I showed you that note are you?"  
  
"No, maybe in a few weeks, but right now my life is stressful enough with training, I don't want to throw guy problems into the mix." Ellie told him.  
  
"Thanks."Nick said. "Cause i think that if he found out he would hit me with those crutches he has, and that would hurt badly."  
  
Ellie laughed. "I could imagiane that." She looked outside and noticed Jason was waiting for her outside. "Oh, my ride is here, see you later."   
  
"Bye!" Nick called after her as she ran out and got into the car.  
  
  
~Meanwhile in the lunch room~  
  
  
Ethan as usual sat with all his popular friends at the lunch table. Like always, the girls were talking about who's wearing what, and who's dating who. And the guys were talking about the upcoming games and parties on the weekend.  
  
"So Ethan, what are your plans for this weekend?" Claire asked him suddenly.  
  
"I'm going to Quebec...You know in Canada." Ethan told her.   
  
"What for?" Hannah Walker asked him.  
  
"Skate Candana." Ethan told them. "Ellie's going and she asked me to come along."  
  
"Oh. Why would you want to go to a boring event like that?" Claire asked. "Its just a bunch of people skating around on the ice, nothing big."  
  
"Yeah. Why don't you just tell her you don't want to go and come to my party." Hannah offered.  
  
"Why would I want to do that?" Ethan asked. He noticed that the girls were wondering why he was acting so strange. He never missed out on a party like that.  
  
"Ethan...Your sister is the one going to the Olympics...Not you." Mary told him. "How does that make you feel?"  
  
"Yeah, if she wins a gold medal, she will be the one in the papers and on the TV...Why do you support her?" Claire asked.  
  
"Why shouldn't he?" Mark suddenly spoke up before Ethan could reply. "He should be proud that Ellie is going to the Olympics. Not jealous."  
  
"And that is exactly what I am. Ellie maybe the one who will get all the publicity, but she won't forget about me. If anyone is jealous here it's you." Ethan told all of them firmly.  
  
"Excuse me..." Mary began.  
  
Ethan stood up. "You heard me! If Ellie where standing right here you all would say it was cool she was going to Italy for the games. But since she not, your saying 'its not a big deal'." His voice was louder than it normally was and everyone was staring at him.  
  
"Yeah right." Heidi spoke up. "We aren't jealous. We just think it's an easy sport. I mean, anyone can go to the Olympics for that..."  
  
"Oh yeah sure." Ethan then grabbed his backpack and walked off fuming. How dare they? Why were they going back to belittling his sister for doing something great? It just wasn't right.  
  
"You know, she's going to get all this publicity and forget about you!" Hannah called after him. "You know its true!"  
  
"No it's not!" Ethan thought to himself. He then left the cafeteria and decided he was never going to hang around the cheerleaders again.  
  
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Later that night, Ellie was talking online to Kate and Lizzie in a private chat room. (A/N:This is going to be done in IM format, because it would be confusing any other way.)  
  
IcEdIvA17: (Ellie) "So anything exciting happen at school today?"  
Blondie825: (Kate) "Sort of..."  
IcEdiva17: "Meaning..."  
LizzieM74: (Lizzie, if it wasn't obvisious lol) "Oh nothing. Your brother just got into a little fight with the cheerleaders."  
IcEdIvA17: "Oh really? Why?"  
Blondie825: "Not really sure. You know, we sit on the other side of the cafeteria, we really coulnd't hear anything."  
LizzieM74: "Yeah, probably he just got sick of their whining and he just blew up."  
IcEdIvA17: "Probably." There was a long pause. "Well...I gotta go finish my homework. See you all tomorrow. Bye!"  
  
LizzieM74: "You think we should tell what they were really fighting about?"  
Blondie825: "No, it would just add to her problems. So we just act like we don't know anything."  
LizzieM74: "I hate to say it...But your right. We know nothing."  
  
  
(Meanwhile, Ethan was on the phone with Mark)  
  
  
"So I'm not going to sit with you guys at lunch anymore." Ethan said.  
  
"Aw come on. It won't be the same without you man." Mark told him.  
  
"I just can't stand the girls. Why are they so jealous?" Ethan said.  
  
"Just because they know they can never accomplish what she has." Mark said. "But you know, they will get over it. Hopefully."  
  
"Yeah, but I still do not want to sit with them." Ethan said.   
  
"Fine. Then the guys will sit at a different table then the girls tomorrow." Mark finally said. "You aren't moving to a different table on a count of the girls."  
  
"Alright. But if they come over...I'm leaving." Ethan said.   
  
"Fair deal." Mark agreed. "And Ethan..."  
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"You know I'm really sorry about what I did you Ellie at the party. I mean, I know I was drunk, but thats no reason to do what I did." Mark said.  
  
"Thanks. But you shouldn't tell me...You should be telling Elle." Ethan said.  
  
"I know...but everything I try to talk to her...She walks away." Mark informed him.   
  
"Write her a letter or something." Ethan suggested.   
  
"I'll think of something." Mark said.   
  
"Alright." Ethan said. "Just make sure it has nothing to do with another party."  
  
Mark laughed. "Way ahead of you there."  
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
As planned, Ethan and Ellie went to Quebec for the Grand Prix event, Skate Canada. The words about what the cheerleaders said ran in his head. Ellie wouldn't forget about him, would she? No way. But he still wondered the whole time.  
  
After the short program, Ethan sat with Ellie for her scores. She did not skate the best program when she was unable to cleanly land a triple toe loop when she hit a knick in the ice before she took off. It was easy to tell she was upset.   
  
The marks where good and dispite the mistake, she was in third place for the time being. She and Ethan walked off, but of course, backstage they were caught by a reporter for ABC Sports.  
  
"Now we would only like to get Maire in this shot." The camera guy told Ethan.  
  
"But what if I..." Ellie began, she didn't want Ethan to have to get out of the picture, but before she could protest the camera was rolling.  
  
"I'm standing here with the new US National Champion, Maire Craft." The repoter said, the camera then backed up so it would show her in the picture, he then turned to Ellie. "Hi Maire, how are you doing?"  
  
"Oh just wonderful." She replied.  
  
Ethan didn't wait around for his sister. Why didn't she stand up for him? He was so angry he just left and went back to the hotel room by himself. Ellie came in about an hour later.   
  
"Ethan?" She called as she opened the door. "Oh my gosh, I was so worried something happened to you."  
  
Ethan was sitting on the bed watching a re-run of TRL on MTV. He just looked up at her with no expression on his face what so ever. "I just got tired of waiting for you." he finally told her.  
  
Ellie looked at her brother. She knew something was wrong, but what was it? "Okay...Could you just tell me, or something next time."   
  
Ethan shrugged. "Sure." He then stood up and turned off the TV. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."  
  
Ellie nodded. "Sweet dreams." She said. Ellie then got ready for bed herself, but was not able to fall asleep so easily. Ethan was acting so strangely, but what the reason was she could not figure out.  
  
***************************************************************************************  
  
The next day, Ethan continued to act strange. Even Jason noticed the extremely weird way he was behaving. He refused to go with Ellie to her practice, or even out to lunch. She thought maybe he was sick or something, but that was really what she was telling herself because she did not want to have something distracting her while she was skating, because if she did, no telling what would happen.  
  
Ellie picked up her bag and costume at around 4:30 that afternoon. She was going over to the rink early to watch Jason in his free program which was going to take place at 5:00. She was to preform at exaclty 7:18 if everything was going on schuedule.  
  
"Hey Ethan you coming?" She asked as she was about to leave to hotel room.  
  
Ethan shrugged. "I'll be there later." He said. "I just have some homework to catch up on."  
  
Ellie left out a little laugh. "No really, are you coming?" She asked.   
  
"Whats so funny?" Ethan asked looking over at her.   
  
Ellie exchanged looks. "Nothing, its just you have never stayed behind because you had to do homework."  
  
"So in other words, I the stupid one who leaves everything to the last minute and is never going to amount to anything..." Ethan said raising his voice.  
  
"I never said that!" Ellie told him firmly. "How did you get that idea?"  
  
"Face it Ellie! I'm not like you! I'm not the straight A student who has won a ton of trohpies and awards because of something I do!" Ethan yelled.   
  
"So?" Ellie asked. "We are different, whats the problem?"  
  
"Of course this is not a problem for you! You have done something with your life, and your only 17! Me on the other hand, mom and dad are constantly on my back about my grades or anything else I do." Ethan continued. "They don't even care about me."  
  
"Where did you get that idea?" Ellie asked in shock.   
  
"Oh if it isn't obvious! They never put me into a dance class, or signed me up for a sports team when I was younger. When they found out you could skate, that was it! They wanted one talented child and the other was just ignored! Lucky me, I get to be the ignored one." Ethan then threw himself onto the bed. "I wish you never came home from Texas." He told her with a look of jealously and hatred in his eyes.  
  
Ellie just stood there a moment. "If thats the way you feel, maybe I will just go back there." She finally said softly. She then just turned and left the room, not wanting to talk to Ethan for a long time.  
  
~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Back home, Lizzie, Miranda, Shawn and Gordo had gone to Kate's house to watch Ellie and Jason skate on TV.   
  
"Why don't they show the short programs on TV?" Gordo asked.   
  
"They are cheap and just don't want to broadcast it." Lizzie replied. "But they will show highlights before the free program."  
  
"Well thats cool." Miranda said.  
  
"Oh shhh!" Kate said as she came into the room with a bowl of popcorn. She then sat down on the couch next to Shawn. "Its starting." Sure enough the talking heads came on and began to talk about how they hoped everyone liked wanting the ice dancing and pairs skating which had been shown eariler that day, and then the camera began to show five men out on the ice.  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~  
  
Jason and Ellie sat backstage in the gym. Ellie was doing a small warm-up while waiting for Jason to skate.  
  
Jason was stretching his back when he noticed something. "Hey Ellie, where's Ethan?"  
  
"At the hotel room." She said.   
  
"Is he coming tonight?" Jason asked.   
  
"No."   
  
"Why not?"  
  
"He's an asshole and I don't want to talk about it." Ellie finally said.  
  
Jason shrugged. "Okay, whatever you say."  
  
Ellie and Jason continued to stretch in silence. Then Jason had to go change into his csotume and put on his skates, and shortly after it was time for Jason's final warm-up out on the ice with the last five skaters. And then once again, he waited backstage for his turn to go on. He went over his choreograhpy as he waited and Ellie just watched, of course there was a camera there just filming them.  
  
*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The TV showed Jason in a open space going over his program, considering it was almost time for him to go on. As always they made sure they showed Ellie in the backround just watching him.  
  
(*( "Jason Storm will be the skater up next, and prepared to be dazzled...This is one of the top male skaters in the world and his has only gotten better since last season." One reporter said as the camera was showing Jason )*) (A/N: This symbol, (*( )*) around quotation marks means it is the sports announcers talking, yeah weird looking I know...but whatever.)  
  
"I haven't seen Jason skate, I'm excitred." Mirando said as the TV went to a commerical.  
  
"Me too. I just hope they are making all that up so that we will stick around to watch it." Kate said.   
  
"Oh no way. I saw his preformance at the Nationals. He really is awesome." Lizzie told them.  
  
"I guess we are going to find out now how good his is." Shawn said. "Its back."  
  
The camera showed Craig Evans, who was also a member of team USA for the Olympics, sitting in the Kiss and Cry area waiting for his scores as Jason took the ice and began to skate around and practice his jumps or anything he was worried about doing.  
  
(*("Here is a look at Jason's short program last night.")*) The camera then showed Jason, in a red and orange shirt with black pants, and a recap of his very nicely skated program which landed him in second place behind his Russian rival, Evgeni Nyscko.   
  
"Sweet." Lizzie said.   
  
(*( "And it looks as though Jason is now ready to begin his program." )*) And so Jason began to skate a wonderful program to selections from the 'Gladiator' soundtrack. The only mistake came when he seemed to over rotate a triple axel and he landed it funny. But it wasn't a mistake big enough to knock him off the medal podium.  
  
"Not too shabby." Miranda said after the program ended.  
  
"Hey, its Ellie!" Shawn pointed out as they showed Jason got off the ice to get his scores.  
  
(*( "These two rink mates are almost inceperable. This past year, Maire moved to be closer to her family and ended up changing coaches and rinks, so Jason decided to switch rinks as well since it just wasn't the same without his good skating friend." )*)  
  
"Yeah like they really know anything about it." Lizzie rolled her eyes.  
  
"Hey, its the media...They just have this way of finding out everything." Kate said.   
  
"Yeah, I guess so." Lizzie said.   
  
  
  
"Its times like this I wish I actually knew how those scores worked." Gordo said as the TV went to a commerical.   
  
"Me too." Miranda said. "Even Ellie has said that she doesn't quite understand the scoring process."   
  
"Oh well." Gordo just shurgged.  
  
"Okay, we have about thirty minutes until we have to start watching Ellie's competition." Kate told everyone as she stood up to stretch. "Anybody want to go for a walk or something?"  
  
"Sure." Lizzie said as she stood up.  
  
"I guess a walk could do me some good." Gordo agreed.  
  
"Well I'm not being left her by myself, so of course I am coming." Miranda said.  
  
"Actually, I think I am going to stay here and go set up a live web cam in Kate's room so I can watch her 24/7." Shawn said with a little smirk on his face, but then he sat up and his eyes got wide. "Did I just say that out loud?"  
  
"Yes." Lizzie and Miranda giggled.  
  
Kate glared at her boyfriend. "You know if you ever did that I would do something invovling a baseball bat and your car!"   
  
Shawn just stood up and hugged Kate. "Oh come on, you know I wouldn't ever do something like that."  
  
"I know. I just like to threaten you." Kate said with a laugh. "Now lets go stretch our legs and then come back to eat more junk and watch our friend on TV."   
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ellie went into the back and began to stretch again while listening to her headphones. She was still so mad for Ethan saying that, but she could not let it control her mind, she had to be thinking about her skating right now, and not her stupid brother.  
  
Jason came back and sat down next to Ellie. "Need someone to talk to?" He asked.  
  
"Nah, you can go back to the hotel room if you want." Ellie told him.  
  
"No way, you watched my program, I'm going to stay to watch yours." Jason told her with a smile.  
  
"I would have come early anyway." Ellie frowned.  
  
"Why?"   
  
"Just because. Its about someone who looks just like me, and is older than me by about four minutes." Ellie told him.  
  
Jason said no more. He just sat there with Ellie. He could easily figure out that they were fighting, but why?   
  
Ellie turned her music on one more time. She just couldn't get her focus on her program, and it was really bugging her. All she could think about was how much Ethan hated her. It finally came time for her to get changed into her costume and then it would be time for her to skate, although how well she would do...She was not sure.  
  
~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The group had gotten back to Kate's house just as another female skater was finishing her program. They had taken a little longer than they thought, since they decided to order pizza to add onto their list of munchies.  
  
"I really hope we did not miss her." Lizzie said as she sat down on the couch next to Gordo.  
  
"I don't think so. Remember she said someting about being like the second to last skater to go." Gordo reminded her. Just as the camera showed Ellie stretching out her back.   
  
(*( "Up next, the two US skating sweethearts, Taylor Johnson and Maire Craft. As well as hometown favorite, Elise Stone." )*)  
  
"And so I am right again." Gordo said with a smirk.  
  
"Oh stop it." Kate said as she handed him a plate with a slice of pizza on it.  
  
"Is it just me, or does Ellie look a little upset?" Miranda asked.   
  
"Maybe she is just tired, or something. But then again, who could blame her?" Shawn said.  
  
"Your right." Miranda said. "Hey, has Mark talked to you about Ellie's send off?"   
  
"Yeah, he called me like two days ago." Kate said. "I think it is sweet he is doing this for her."   
  
"Another one of Mark's over the top ideas which he will talk about, but never actually do." Shawn said with a bit of harshness in his voice.   
  
"Why do you say that?" Miranda asked. She had never heard Shawn have such a negative comment to say about someone before.  
  
"Just because. Long story." Shawn said.   
  
"You can tell us..." Lizzie began.  
  
Shawn shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it." He then folded his arms and lay back on the couch. Not saying a word the rest of the night.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ellie continued to stretch as she awaited her turn to go onto the ice. During her final warm-up on the ice, she fell or two footed most of her jumps. With all the other skaters doing so well, she had no idea how she was going to even make the top five. This was all Ethan's fault. Now she wasn't even mad at him, she was begining to hate her brother for everything. If it wasn't for him, she would have never switched rinks, or gotten amnesia, or gone to the stupid party where someone almost raped her. It was his fault she was going to lose out on a medal at Skate Canda for the second year in a row. After the Olympics she was leaving and going back to Texas with Jason, not matter what her parents said.  
  
"Maire, your up now for your last warmup." One of the tech guys told her.   
  
"Thank you." She said. She then stepped out onto the ice and began to skate slowly, trying to get her head together for her program. She then went back over to see her coach.  
  
"Ellie, I'm not exactly sure what is going on right now, but I need you to stop worrying about everything but skating." Timothy told her.   
  
"Yes sir." Ellie told him.   
  
"Okay, your up now." He told her.   
  
Ellie then took a deep breath and closed her eyes.   
  
"Skating next is Maire Craft!" The speaker announcered.  
  
As soon as she heard her name, she seemed to have a clear head, and was not thinking about Ethan, or anything else other than skating.She smiled as she skating out and the crowd began to cheer her on. She then took her starting position, and then began to skate. She was doing fine until she came up to the triple lutz, triple loop combination when she landed the lutz jump funny and then even though she knew she should have doubled the second jump, she did a triple anyway, and fell. Which was the first time she had fallen in competition since the year before at the Cup of Russia. After that, she fell apart. she couldn't regain her focus, not matter how hard she tried. And when the program was over, the disappoint in herself was obvisous. Skating over to her coach and Jason, she burst into tears.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
"Oh my gosh! How did that happen?" Lizzie exclaimed when they saw Ellie fall.   
  
"I don't know. She was getting that jump so well this week at practice." Kate said.   
  
(*("She seems to be a little surprised at that. Here is a another triple jump, the triple flip...And it is two footed.")*)  
  
"Good lord, whats going on?" Kate asked. "She was doing so well on Thursday.   
  
"Maybe she got hurt." Gordo suggested.   
  
They watched as their friend struggled through the rest of the program. And when she was done, and saw her crying it broke all their hearts.  
  
"Man, this is awful." Lizzie said. "And she has another competition in two weeks."  
  
"You know that now she is going to be in practice all the time." Kate said. "Her coach is already hard enough on her, now after a program like that...Who knows how stressed she is going to be this week."  
"Yeah, but when she see her on Tuesday, don't say anything. She is probably already upset enough about it." Miranda said.   
  
"Duh!" Kate and Lizzie said, and then began to laugh.  
  
~*~*~*~**~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ellie sobbed as Jason and Timothy waited for her scores in the Kiss and Cry area. She was able to stop crying and look at her scores, but after the first set, she just lowered her head and began to cry again. As she had predicted, she did not make the medal podium that night...But she was able to come in fifth place dispite her horrible routine.  
  
"Ellie, its okay. Better to have an awful program now than at the Olympics." Jason told her. "We'll work on everything this week alright. Then when we go to Russia in two weeks, you will win for sure."  
  
"I don't wat to go to Russia! I want to go home!" Ellie yelled as she took her skates off and threw them into her bag.  
  
Jason picked up her skates and wiped off the blades who a towel. "We are going hom etomorrow. Don't worry."  
  
"No! I want to go back to Texas! I hate it there!" Ellie told him as she wiped her tears.  
  
"Why?" Jason asked. "I know you loved hanging out with Ethan, and Lizzie and all them."  
  
"I hate Ethan!" She yelled, and then ran into the bathroom to cry more. She was upset, because now her training would be hell, she was embarrassed that she had just acted like a two year old in front of the whole world and Jason, and she was going crazy knowig that she was going to have to go back to the hotel room to fight with Ethan even more. After she was done crying she went back out and saw Jason still sitting on the bench.  
  
"I knew ou would come out of there sooner or later." He smiled. Ellie just frowned and shook her head. "Come here." He then stood up and held his arms out to Ellie and hugged her. She just began to cry again. He just kept hugging her, and telling her it was okay.  
  
"I am such a loser." Ellie said as she finally pulled away from Jason.   
  
"No your not, everyone has an off day." Jason told her.   
  
"Not like this one." Ellie said.   
  
"Listen, I kow right now the last thing you probably want to do is tell me whats wrong, so I'm not going to ask." Jason told her. "But I am going to wait for you to get changed so I can drive you back to the hotel."  
  
"Thank you." Ellie said quietly.  
  
"Your welcome." Jason said.   
  
Ellie then went into the bathroom and changed into her regular clothes and afterwards, Jason took her back to the hotel. When she entered the room, Ethan was sitting on the bed watching TV. He looked up when she came into the room.  
  
"i saw that fall you took. What was that all about?" He asked her.   
  
Ellie just glared at him and tears began to run down her face again. "I couldn't focus." She yelled at him. She then went into the bathroom and locked herself in there, ignoring Ethan punding on the door.  
  
"Ellie, opened the door and just talk to me please!" He said.   
  
Ellie finally opened the door and looked at him, as though she was trying to burn a hole through him. "You want to know why, I couldn't focus...You!" She finally told him.  
  
"Wait, this is all my fault?" Ethan asked.   
  
"YES! And I hate you for it!" She yelled and then slammed the door in his face. Which was something she had not done in a long time.   
  
Ethan went back to watching TV, wondering how it was his fault she fell. But he was too thick headed to think of the reason.  
  
***********************************************************************************************  
  
That stupid bastard! He messed everything up! Now what happens? Does Ellie forgive Ethan and then everything goes back to normal? Why does Shawn hate Mark so much? Review and you shall soon find out. And I promise it will not take me three months to write the next chapter! 


	16. Coming Home

Hey! I finally have another chapter written. So I hope you enjoy, and remember I own nothing other than characters not usually on the show, and review! I know you all can do better than two reviews per chapter. If thats the way it is going to be, I will not be posting the rest of the story any time soon. So review. Thanks.   
  
************************************************************************************  
  
Ellie, Ethan, and Jason returned home around 6:30 Monday night. Ellie was still refusing to talk to Ethan about anything, and she would only answer yes or no questions. Ethan was able to figure out why Ellie was mad at him, but how was his fault that she had done so badly in her free skate? Nothing like personal problems can effect a skating preformance that much...Could it? Either way, Ethan soon stopped even trying to talk to Ellie.  
  
"Hey you two. How was your trip?" Their mother asked as Ethan and Ellie got into their parents car.   
  
"Fine." They said in the same, bored tone.  
  
"Oh it couldn't have been that bad." Mr. Craft said. For some reason their parents both seemed very cheery, probably because they knew something was bothering Ellie and did not want to upset her.  
  
"It wasn't anything special." Ellie said. "I missed out on hardware for the second year in a row. No big." With that she shot a look of hate at her brother.   
  
Ethan scowled and nugded his sister in the arm. Ellie just did the same back to him, and they looked like two little kids fighting over a piece of candy.  
  
"Did you get all your school work done?" Mrs. Craft asked them trying to change the subject.   
  
"Yes." They mumbled.   
  
"Aren't you excited about going to Russia in two weeks, Ellie?" Her mother asked, refering to the next skating event, the 'Cup of Russia'.   
  
"Oh yeah. But I already talked to Taylor and she said I could room with her, since her parents aren't going with her to this one." Ellie told her. "If thats alright."  
  
"Of course it is alright." Mrs. Craft said lightly. "But what is Ethan going to do?"  
  
Ellie moved closer to the window. "I don't want him to come." She finally said.   
  
A look of surprise came across her parent's faces, Ethan just turned to look out the window.   
  
"Well, I suppose that is alright, since it would be better than rooming alone." Mrs. Craft said.   
  
"Okay, I'll call her tomorrow." Ellie said, reveled she would not go to another skating event where Ethan would mess with her brain again and she would lose out on another medal. After winning gold at the Nationals, losing out on medals of any color at the Grand Prix events would look pretty bad, and she did not want that to happen.  
  
It was silent the rest of the car ride home, and even as they unpacked the car and went to their bedrooms. Ellie decided to catch up on some sleep while Ethan decided to call Mark.  
  
"Hello?" Mark's voice came on the other line.   
  
"Hey, it's Ethan." He said as he sat down on his bed to take off his shoes.   
  
"Hey man, whats up?" Mark asked, he sounded pleased that it was Ethan who was calling.  
  
"Nothing much. Just got back from the worst trip of my life." Ethan told him with a twinge of anger in his voice.   
"How so?" Mark asked.   
  
"I just happened to realize that my parents only care about Ellie, and not me."   
  
"Come again?" Mark sounded bewildered.   
  
Ethan sighed. "Ellie is the talented twin, and I am the rejected, never going to amount to anything twin."  
  
Mark was quite for a moment. "I can't believe it. Claire and her bitchy posse have finally gotten to you."  
  
"What? No way." Ethan said firmly.   
  
"Say what you will. But you have never thought that way until now. Admit it Ethan, I'm right." There was a long silent pause. "I have to finish some homework. I'll see you tomottow." Mark said and he then hung up.  
  
"I hate it when he talks like he knows everything!" Ethan said to himself, too blind to see that that Mark had hit the nail on the head as to why Ethan felt that way.  
  
******************************************************************************************************  
  
Ellie went to school without Ethan the next day and soon found Lizzie sitting outside the school, it wasn't the usual December cold as usual, and that was why many people where enjoying the slightly good weather while they could.  
  
"Hey Lizzie." Ellie said as she sat down next to her.  
  
Lizzie looked up from her history book and smiled when she realized it was Ellie. "Hey, how are you?"  
  
"Tired." Ellie said with a laugh. "How about you?"  
  
"I've been better." Lizzie said. "I have to get my history homework done before second period."  
  
"Better hurry." Ellie teased.  
  
Lizzie shrugged. "I only have a few more problems to do." She said, as she wrote something across the paper. "Miranda and I are going to the mall tomorrow night. You want to come?"   
  
Ellie thought a minute. Tomorrow was Wednesday, she would have training until four thirty, and then have a little homework, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. Plus, she had to get for a little while...Even if it meant not doing homework for one night. "Sure, count me in."  
  
"Cool." Lizzie said as the first bell rang. She then closed her book with the paper in it. "We'll meet at the food court at 5:00 tomorrow night...Sound good?"  
  
Ellie stood up, and swung her bag over her shoulder. "Sounds great."  
  
"Sweet. Well we better get to homeroom...One more tardy for me and I have detention." Lizzie said with a little laugh.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ethan and Mark pulled into the school parking lot as the first bell rang. Ellie had not woken him up, so he was really running behind. Not to mention, he had to call Mark at the last minute to get a ride to school. Ethan's day so far was not going very well.  
  
"You gonna need a ride tomorrow too?" Mark asked as he jumped out of the driver's seat and pulled his bag out. "Cause if you do...Please tell me with more than a two minute notice."  
  
"Hey man, I told you...Ellie just kind of left me this morning." Ethan said as they began to walk into school. "I didn't know she was going to do that."  
  
"Oh yeah, when you piss Ellie off she just forgives and then forgets within twenty four hours." Mark mumbled.  
  
"What was that?" Ethan asked. He heard 'piss Ellie off' but that was it.  
  
"Nothing." Mark said as he pushed through the front doors of school. "Did you talk to Ellie at all last night?"  
  
"No. Why should I?" Ethan asked.   
  
Mark shook his head. "Because you idiot...Its obvisous that what you told her pissed her off enough to mess with her brain...You don't talk to her soon, it is going to turn into the Jerry Springer set whenever you two are in the same room." He said as they walked into their homeroom and slid into their two usual seats in the back of the room.  
  
"No, she'll forget all about it by tonight...I know her better than you do." Ethan said.   
  
"I'm really sure about that." Mark said as the final bell rang and the announcements came over the intercome.   
  
****************************************  
  
Ellie had gone to practice that day at noon, as usual. But practice was awful. Timothy said that he understood she was under a lot of stress, but she had to better than sixth place at the next three events or the Olympics would not exactly be a pretty thing. Meaning that he wasn't going to ease up on training. She ran through her long program four times, the whole way through. Not to mention practice spin after spin, and jump after jump. It was not fun at all and she was very tired when she got home. The biggest upset came when her parents for some unknown reason wanted them to have a family dinner and made her come down and sit across from Ethan at dinner.   
  
"So, Ellie, how was practice?" Mrs. Craft asked, in her motherly tone.   
  
"It was fine. I think I will do better in Russia next weekend." Ellie said, she then looked at Ethan. "Considering someone will not be coming."  
  
Ethan looked at her and glared. "If that was meant to piss me off it didn't. I don't even want to go...So there." He said, then looking back at his plate.   
  
"Fine. I bet you can find some nice cheerleaders to hang out with that weekend anyway. You probably won't even know I'm gone." Ellie said.   
  
"Cheerleaders?" Mrs. Craft asked.   
  
Ethan turned red, and continued to stare down at his food. His parents never exactly approved of him dating cheerleaders, but he did anyway, just hoping that they would never find out.   
  
"Oh yeah mom, Ethan can't get enough of the cheerleaders at school." Ellie said, obvisously knowing that Ethan was probably going to be grounded for it. "You know his old girlfriend...."  
  
"Shut up Ellie!" Ethan yelled. "I stopped hanging out with those girls a long time ago!"  
  
"Oh yeah, two weeks is a long time." Ellie said keeping her cool, even though it was very hard to do so.  
  
"Hey, I have not talked to anyone of them within the two weeks. I don't even like them anymore...Plus your the one to talk...Your going back and forth between Travis and Jason anyway!" Ethan yelled.   
  
Ellie got enraged. It was totally out of line for him to say that, she stood up and threw her napkin down. "For your information! I haven't gone on a date with either of them...Thereofore, we are just friends and nothing is going on between us!" She screamed at him.  
  
"Ellie...Calm down." Her mother said.  
  
"You too Ethan...This is out of control!" Their father yelled. "Ellie we know you had a bad weekend for skating, but that doesn't mean you have to go one hating your brother."  
  
"He's the stupid reason that I had a bad skating weekend!" Ellie yelled.   
  
"What are you..." Mrs. Craft began.  
  
"He somehow got the idea in his head that he's the neglected and wished that I had never moved here from Texas." Ellie yelled. "If it wasn't for him, I would still be in Texas, and everything would be fine! He's the freaking reason that I messed up! It was his ex-girlfriend who almost ruined my future skating career!"  
  
"She's one of your best friends...Why are you bringing her up?" Ethan asked her.   
  
"Because she's my friend now, but back then she was in your group!" Ellie yelled. She then paused and took a deep breath. "You know it doesn't even matter...I have made the decision that I'm moving back to Texas as soon as the school year is over."  
  
Everyone stared at her for a moment, even Ethan looked very hurt she said that.   
  
"Ellen Maire...I don't think that is something you should think about now." Her father said. "You should focus more on the next month and a half, then you can make a decison like that."  
  
"I'm not staying here!" Ellie screamed as she then slammed her fists down on a table and began to walk out of the kitchen.  
  
"Ellen!" Her mother called after her. "Come back her and we will talk about this!"  
  
Ellie hit the wall and ended up punching a hole in it. She then turned back to them, "I'm not staying here! And you can't make me!" She told them fiercely with tears in her eyes. She then turned and stomped up to her bedroom, and slammed the door.  
  
The rest of her family sat at the table for a moment. It was in that moment when Ellie told all of them that she wanted to go back to Texas that Ethan realized what he told her, must have really hurt. He then stood up and began to walk out of the room, debating whether or not to go talk to her or not.  
  
"Ethan Matthew Craft...Come back here this instant." Mr. Craft said in his booming fatherly tone.   
  
Ethan turned and went to go sit back down at the table.  
  
"Now, just tell us...Why is Ellie blaming you for why she had a bad skating day?" Mrs. Craft asked.   
  
Ethan sighed and began to tell his parents the whole story, including that it was Claire who put the thought in his head.  
  
*************************************************************************************************  
  
Mark picked Ethan up the next morning for school. For once, he was leaving for school eariler than Ellie.  
  
"So, has Ellie forgiven you yet?" Mark asked as they began to drive down the street to school.  
  
Ethan sighed. "No. She really hates me." He said.   
  
"Yeah I know." Mark said.   
  
Ethan looked at him. "How?"  
  
"You forgot your notebook in my car yesterday, and being the good friend I am, I came and brought it over to your house." Mark said. "But of course, I came at the time when you and Ellie had your little run in."  
  
"You heard that?"  
  
"I think the whole city heard it." Mark said. "I don't think she is going to forget about it anytime soon."  
  
"Neither do I. I feel really bad. After seeing her all torn up last night, I understand why she is so pissed, and I don't blame her one bit." Ethan said. "I think I'll be riding to school with you for a long time."  
  
"Not if you come up with a really nice way of telling her you are sorry." Mark said.   
  
"And home am I going to do that?"  
  
Mark shrugged. "If you are really sorry, you'll think of something."  
  
"Yeah right." Ethan then slumped in his seat and stared out the window the rest of the time.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
Ellie met Lizzie and Miranda later that day at the mall, and she was ready to go shopping. The only thing that got her through the whole day, and her practice, was knowing she was going to be having a little fun afterwards.  
  
"Hey chica." Miranda said with a smile. "Whats up.  
  
"Oh nothing much. How about you?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Oh we were just thinking about the school's winter formal. Maybe if we get dresses now, they will be a little cheaper." Lizzie said.   
  
Ellie looked puzzled. "Winter formal?"  
  
"Yeah, its like homecoming dance. All the grades are invited and you get to dress up and it is really really fun. They pick a 'Ice King' and 'Ice Queen', just like homecoming king and queen...Its awesome." Miranda explained.   
  
"When is it?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Kate said the last Friday in January...And I guess that is right, considering she is charge of the dance." Miranda said. "You don't have skating that weekend, do you?"  
  
Ellie thought a moment. "Nope." She said happily.  
  
"Great. Then lets get a jump start on looking for dresses." Lizzie said as they began to walk to their first dress desination.  
  
"Then we can get a jump start on getting dates." Miranda said.   
  
"Oh, that is going to be a little hard for me." Ellie said.   
  
Lizzie just nudged her. "No way girl, you can bring Jason...Or Travis. I bet either of them would love to go with you." She said.   
  
Ellie remembered what Ethan had said the night before. "Maybe not..."  
  
"Maybe yes!" Miranda said.   
  
Ellie just shrugged and didn't say another word about it the whole trip. On the plus side, she got a bunch of new clothes and had a few dresses in mind. Not to mention she also was able to forget her problems for at least a few hours.  
  
At the end of the night, Miranda and Lizzie both had dresses in mind to buy, now they just had to go home and beg their parents to buy it for them. Ellie hadn't seen anything she liked. But she was able to get a few new pairs of jeans and sweaters. She was finally happy to have an afternoon of laughing and fun, rather than just stress and homework. Something she had despreately needed.  
  
*******************************************************************************  
  
Ethan sat in his room trying to do his Chemistry homework. As always, he had no idea what it meant, and he had his mind on something else.   
  
The phone rang and he got up to answer it. "Hello?"  
  
"Its for me Ethan! Hang up!" Ellie's voice came.   
  
"Whatever you say." He said as he then turned the phone off. He then put the phone back down on the pad and shook his head. "She will never forgive me for this one." He thought as he knocked a bunch of papers off of his desk, onto the ground.  
  
He sat back down at his desk when one of the papers caught his eye. He went over and picked it up, and it was the newspaper from Nationals with their picture, when a quote under the picture made his eyes water.   
  
"Ethan is my best friend. I don't think I could ask for a better brother or friend in life. Sure we fight, thats what siblings do...But there will never be anything we can't overcome." It read in bold black print.  
  
"I think I caused the one thing we can't get through." Ethan thought to himself as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I've lost the only true friend I have ever had."  
  
He just sat there for the next hour, thinking about Ellie, and how much it sucked being an only child. He also thought about what it would be like if she really did go back to Texas. He would lose his sister, best friend, tutor, role model, and everything she really was it him.   
  
Ethan then looked down at the newspaper he had once again thrown onto the floor. "Thats it! I got it" He exclaimed. "I got it."  
  
********************************************************************************  
  
The next week went by rather quickly. Ellie stopped talking to Ethan completely, except for..."I need to use the phone now!" or "Get out of my way!" Jason had helped her channel all her frustration and she was skating much better. She hoped to make up for the horrible performance two weeks prior.   
  
She went to St. Petersburg Russia with Jason, and as planned shared a room with Taylor. She was unpacking her bag when she came across something she knew she had not packed. It was a piece of paper with a picture on it of her falling on a jump at Skate Canada, above it read, "Worlds Worst Brother". Ellie sat down on her bed and read the print below.  
  
"American skating sweetheart, Maire Craft had a little trouble at the skaing Grand Prix event Skate Canada two weeks ago as a result of a fight with her twin brother Ethan. Trouble started when Ethan let a jealous cheerleader's words get to his head, in turn causing an argument between them. To make matters worse, it the fight came two hours before Maire had to skate her free progam. Harsh words hurt Maire greatly and it took a huge toll on her skating, causing her to place sixth over all. However, Ethan has come forth saying that he knows what he did was wrong and is truely sorry. Not just for ruining his sisters chances at a medal, but for many things. Now thanks to him being a selfish idiot, his role model and best friend is gone. As Maire goes on to the next of three Grand Prix events, Ethan stays at home alone, hoping to regain the friend he lost."  
  
Ellie felt a twinge of guilt. She had probably hurt her family so much when she told them that she wanted to move back to Texas. She never really meant it, it was just something she had said out of anger.   
  
She then noticed Ethan's hand writing on the bottom, "Please turn over". Ellie did and it was another note from Ethan, but this was written in his handwriting.  
  
"Ellie, I just want you to know that I am extremely sorry about what I said a few weeks ago. Claire and her posse are jealous of what you have accomplished and tried to turn me into a green eyed monster along with them. Stupidly I fell for it, and then everything seemed like the whole spotlight was on you, and you know how the rest goes. I just want you to know that I am really sorry about what I said, and the way I said it. I can't fully say I am not jealous, but I know that I should be happy for what you are doing. Anyway, I hope you like the newspaper article that I made for you. And I really hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. If you do, then do the secret signal before your freeskate...You know I will be watching. Good luck in Russia, come home soon. Love~ Ethan."  
  
Ellie smiled. Ater least Ethan could admit he was wrong. She did miss him a lot, and something like that shouldn't break up best friends? No way. Ellie then put the paper down and continued to unpack. She had a feeling she would be doing very well in both of her programs.  
  
**************************************************  
  
Ellie managed to pull off a great short program. It put her in over all 2nd behind Elise Stone of Canada. Then, two nights later Ellie couldn't wait to get out onto the ice to show everyone that she was there to skate and that she could still medal at the Olympics.  
  
She took to the ice after a great warm-up. She was excited, and ready to skate. After getting final advice from Timothy, she skated out as the crowd cheered.   
  
As she took her opening pose, she scratched behind her left ear, then shook her fingers. Then her music began, and she skated a flawless program.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Ethan watched the first skaters preform, not exactly with full attention, he was just waiting for Ellie to go on.   
  
(*(SKating next is Maire Craft of the United States.)*) The camera then showed Ellie strecthing her arms, and then turn and wave to camera.   
  
After a commerical break, the camera was showing some girl in a light pink dress waiting for her scores. After the scores, the speaker introduced Ellie, or Maire as they said. Ethan's stomach was turning as he watched Ellie skate out to the middle of the rink, but then relaxed and smiled brightly when he saw Ellie scratch her ear and then shake her fingers. It was there secret signal for Ellie and Ethan before she skated. They came up with it when she began appearing on TV, just for a way to say, "I know your watching, and I miss you." But in this case it meant that she forgave Ethan for being a punk.   
  
Ethan watched his sister skate and smiled again when he found out that she had won the gold medal. He then picked up the phone and dialed Mark's phone number. "Hey Mark, I don't need a ride to school this week."  
  
*************************************************************************************  
  
One other thing, in the real world, the Grand Prix series are BEFORE Nationals. But I switched it around. (Just for anyone who could possibly been wondering about it). Thought I should clear that up.   
  
Anyway...You like the story and want me to post the rest? REVIEW! The next two chapters will most likely be focused more on friendship rather than Ellie's skating. So review and you will find out what happens. 


	17. Dress Shopping

Thanks to all those who reviewed. Here is the next chapter. Just think, one more chapter and then it is time for the Olympics! I'm writing the next two chapters right now. Remember I own nothing except for characters not usually on the show. So enjoy the chapter.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Ellie returned home on Monday night as always, but this time she was her old self again. She and Ethan were once again hanging out and actually talking, which of course made their parents happy.   
  
Over the next few weeks, Ellie went on to Skate America and won another silver medal there behind Taylor, meaning that she was invited to the Grand Prix Final two weeks later, and there she won the bronze medal. That was a great accomplishment since it was her first Grand Prix Final. Now that the games were about two and half weeks away, Ellie was still constantly working out and on a very healthy diet. But it wasn't as hard as it was before, since she had much more support from her friends.  
  
As Miranda and Lizzie had told her before, the Winter Formal was coming up and Ellie was definately going, with or without a date.   
  
It was Monday afternoon, and Ellie was sitting in Chemisty class...The last class of her the day, and it was just dragging on. She wanted to get out of school, go to skating, then go to the mall with Lizzie, Kate and Miranda to look for a dress, since the dance was on Saturday night and Ellie still had not been able to find the right dress. Why couldn't she press the fast forward button and just get out of class.  
  
About fifteen minutes before class was over, Samantha McBride, a very popular senior who was the head of the Dance Commity came on the intercom.   
  
"Hey guys, now everyone is probably wondering who the nominees are for the the Class Ice Princess and Prince, not to mention, the Ice King and Queen. Well, they have all been printed onto sheets in which your teachers will pass out now...Check who you you would like to vote for, and turn them into your teacher when you are done. Thanks!" And the intercom then went off.   
  
Ellie leaned over to Lizzie who sat next to her. "I thought their was only Ice King and Queen, what is the Prince and Princess thing?" She asked.   
  
"Oh, there is a prince and princess from each class...and then the Ice King and Queen are always seniors." Lizzie said as she took a pen out of her backpack. "The prince and princess thing is so everyone has a chance to get a crown or something."  
  
"Oh, okay..." Ellie said, as the boy in front of her handed her the ballots. She then passed it on back to the person behind her.  
  
She then took out her pen to mark in who she wanted to vote for. She randomly voted for the 9th and 10th grade nominees, since she knew very little of them, and the ones she didn know, were not on the ballot. Then she looked at who was nominated for the Junior class. Mark Green, Travis Melrose, and Steven Phillips. No doubt she was going to vote for Travis. Then she looked at the girls who where nominated. Claire Miller, Stacy Simpson, and Ellie Craft.   
  
"Wait, who nominated me?" Ellie thought to herself looking over the sheet again. Yep, it definately said that she was one of the choices. But how? "Oh well...I guess I should vote for myself. Since I'm not exactly friends with Claire, or Stacy."   
  
Ellie then checked off her name, and continued on with the ballot. The bell finally rung and Ellie hurried to turn in her sheet and then get out of there.  
  
"Hey Elle. We still going to the mall today?" Lizzie asked as she passed Ellie's locker.   
  
"Hell yeah." Ellie replied. "Meet there 5:00 sharp!"  
  
"You got it babe. See ya then." Lizzie said, and then went along on her way.   
  
Ellie grabbed her books and left to go to the rink. Who nominated her? The question was driving her crazy. But she brushed it aside as she went onto have a great practice. And then she hurried over to the mall to meet Lizzie and Miranda.  
  
"Hey!" Lizzie said cheerfully as Ellie approched them. "We are here at five o'clock sharp. Now where to first?"  
  
"I don't know. I have no idea how I am going to find the right dress..." Ellie said. "I mean, the dance is less than a week away."  
  
"Oh don't worry. We will find something." Miranda said. "But come on. We better cover some ground tonight."  
  
"And then come back tomorrow if we don't find anything." Lizzie said. "But lets get moving."  
  
The girls went to two formal dress shops in the mall, and found a few possible dresses, but they were both expensive and Ellie wasn't sure she wanted to spend that much money.  
  
"So, who did you vote for today?" Lizzie asked as they flipped through the rack of dresses. "You know, for the Winter Formal royality."  
  
"For Ellie of course!" Miranda replied. "Who else? There was no way I was voting for Claire."  
  
"Same here. Who nominateed you Ellie?" Lizzie asked.  
  
"I was about to ask you the same question." Ellie said. "I just saw my name and was like 'Hold up...How did that happen?"  
  
"Oh well. I think that out of the three...You are most definately going to win." Miranda said.   
  
Ellie shrugged. "I'm not getting my hopes up. Knowing Claire she is probably threating people to vote for her."   
  
Lizzie laughed. "Most likely. But you never know."   
  
"So what about dates?" Miranda asked. "Who are you going with?"  
  
"Gordo...Of course." Lizzie replied. Miranda rolled her eyes, as if to say "Duh."  
  
"No one. I'm going stag...All the good guys are taken." Ellie said.   
  
"Same here." Miranda asked. "I guess we will stick together."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me." Ellie said with a smile. At least she wasn't the only one without a date.  
  
About an hour later, the girls walked out of the mall, empty handed. They had pretty much gone to all the dress shops in the mall.  
  
"Sorry we couldn't find anything to buy Ellie." Lizzie said as they walked out into the parking lot.   
  
"I guess I could give up sleeping and then sew something together by Saturday." Ellie said.   
  
Miranda laughed. "Or...You know that new mall that just opened?" She said with a evil grin.  
  
"Miranda...That mall is like forty five minutes away. There is no way we can go there tomorrow." Lizzie said.   
  
"Not unless we go in the morning..." Miranda said.   
  
The other two looked at her. Confused. "Huh?" Ellie asked.   
  
"We can skip school, go there and then get back her before Ellie has to go to her practice." Miranda told them.   
  
Ellie nodded. "I have been meaning to take a day off." She said. "Count me in."   
  
Lizzie sort of looked between the two. "No way. We are so going to get caught."  
  
"Have you forgotten who you are talking to?" Miranda asked. "I will call in on my cell phone while I am walking to school, and then write a note saying I was sick and sign my mom's name to it."  
  
"Yeah, and I'll call in saying that I am going out of town to meet with a different coach." Ellie said. "I still have a note from my coach that says, 'Sorry that Ellie missed class due to her training.' Plus, he even said I don't have to get there unitl around two tomorrow."   
  
"Yeah, but I tried this last year...and I cracked and got grounded for two weeks!" Lizzie exclaimed.  
  
"Then let us take care of it for you." Miranda offered.   
  
Lizzie shook her head. "I have the worst luck in the world. Count me out!" She said.   
  
"Suit yourself." Miranda said. Lizzie still had not gotten over the whole, 'I shouldn't get in trouble, it will go on my perminate record' thing, it sometimes got on Miranda's nerves.  
  
"Call me tonight, we can work out the details." Ellie said to Miranda.   
  
"Kay...Talk to you then." Miranda said. She and Lizzie then went to to her car and got in, while Ellie got into her own car and drove home.   
  
"Hey sweetie. Did you find a dress at the mall?" Her mother asked when Ellie walked into the kitchen about ten minutes later.   
  
"I have my eye on a couple. But I didn't buy anything." Ellie said.   
  
"I hope you find something soon." She said.   
  
Ellie smiled to herself. "I bet I will." She said. "I better go get started on my homework." She then walked upstairs and went into her room to call Miranda.  
  
**********************************************************  
  
The next morning, Ellie got ready and did everything she usually did before she went to school. As always she had to go and drag Ethan out of bed. Then they were out of the house as usual by 7:35.  
  
They pulled into the school parking lot at 7:45.   
  
"Come on." Ethan said as Ellie parked the car.   
  
Ellie stopped a minute. "You go ahead, I'll catch up." She said.   
  
"And you have to do what..." Ethan asked.   
  
"Nothing." Ellie said.   
  
Ethan shrugged. "Okay. See you later then." He then got out of the car and walked into the school.  
  
Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close." She then took her cell phone out of her purse and dailed the school's number. After putting on a 'good girl' act, Ellie was let off the hook for not being in school, she just had to bring a note from her coach. Ha! Already done.  
  
She then heard someone knocking on her window. It was Miranda, and Kate was with her. Ellie motioned for them to get in the car.   
  
"Hey chica." Miranda said as she climbed into the passengers seat. "I called in, they bought my whole mother's act. Its covered."  
  
"Sweet." Ellie said. "Hey Kate." She said as Kate climbed into the back seat.  
  
"Hey Elle." Kate said. "I thought it would be cool to take a mental health day, and I heard Miranda talking about you two skipping school. I hope I don't bust your plans."  
  
"Not at all. The more the merrier." Ellie said as she then turned the car back on and they left the school lot. "Oh this is going to be awesome."  
  
"I know!" Miranda said. "By the way, Kate, how are you going to get away with this?"   
"My parents are out of town until tomorrow." Kate said. "I'll tell them I didn't feel well, and they will write me a note. Everything works out."   
  
"Sweet." Ellie said. "This is going to be awesome!" She then put in her mixed CD and they all had a big conversation about the winter formal on the way there. About fifty minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of the new mall.  
  
"Come on there is shopping to be done." Kate said after Ellie parked the car.   
  
"Wait, what if someone asks us why we aren't in school?" Miranda asked.   
  
"They won't. We look old enough that they will probably think we go to the local college." Kate said.   
  
"I don't think we look that old." Ellie said. "How about we are in town for a family reunion, and our parents let us go out for a little bit."  
  
"That might work too." Miranda said. "Now come on, lets get going."  
  
The three girls then went into the mall, and the first stop, 'The Formal Shop' and they found nothing. Then they went to 'Fashion Fun' and left with nothing.  
  
"Its 10:00 o'clock right now. I say that we shop until 11:30, then get lunch, and then shop some more." Miranda said as they walked into another formal dress shop.  
  
Kate shurgged. "Sounds good to me." She said.   
  
"Ditto." Ellie said as she began looking through a rack of dresses. "Hey look at this one!" She pulled out a light pink strapless dress.   
  
Kate sort of made a face. "That looks a lot like the dress I bought." She said. "Its just..."  
  
Ellie just smiled as she put the dress back. "Say no more, I understand completely...It is in the formal dress bible for girls, 'Thou shall not wear the same dress.'" She said with a completely straight face.   
  
Kate and Miranda laughed. "Thats a good one, the formal dress bible." Kate said.   
  
"I was serious." Ellie told them. They all stopped and looked at each other for a minute. "Kidding..." She said. They then all began to laugh again.   
  
"I hate it when you do that." Kate said as they settled down.   
  
Ellie smirked. "I know you do." She said.   
  
They left that store about twenty minutes later still empty handed.   
  
"I hate how guys have it so easy!" Ellie said. "They just have to rent a tux...We have to spend all the time looking for a dress then spend a ton of money on it."  
  
"Actually they don't even get a tux...They wear khakies and nice shirts most of the time." Kate told her.   
  
"Totally not fair." Ellie said. "But how about now we go buy some jeans. We deserve something new."   
  
"Sounds like a plan to me." Miranda agreed as they then turned into the 'Express' store which was close by.  
  
They each bought two pairs of jeans, since they were on sale, buy one get the second pair for twenty dollars, as well as a few shirts. After that they went to the food court and got some Taco Bell for lunch and took it to a table to eat.   
  
"Well the trip wasn't a complete waste." Kate said.   
  
"It isn't over yet either." Ellie reminded her. "We don't have to leave until 1:00, it isn't even 11:30."   
  
"True..." Kate said.   
  
"Hey girls." They all heard a familar voice, and turned to see Nick and Travis standing there.   
"Hey guys." Miranda said in a flirty voice. (you know the voice every girl has when they are talking to guys).  
  
"Now can I ask what are you three doing skipping school?" Nick asked.   
  
"Hey, if we go down, we can take you down with us if we get caught." Kate told them.   
  
"But our parents gave us permission to come here." Travis told them.   
  
All the girls knew he had to be making it up. "How so?"  
  
Travis then put his leg up on a chair nearby that was empty. "Look! All better. No cast, no slipt, and no damn crutches." He told them proudly. "My mom said she had a surprise for me today, and it was that I got the day off...She had called Nick's mom and they arranged so that we could just have a day to hang out."  
  
"Awesome. So your leg is totally better now?" Miranda asked.   
  
"Yep!" Travis said. "But I can't put a lot of pressure on it, meaning that I still can't play basketball. But at least I can walk on my own again."  
  
"Cool." Kate smiled. "You want to sit down?"  
  
"Sure...Why not." Nick said as they both pulled up chairs and sat in them backwards. "Now what are you doing skipping school?"  
  
"I couldn't find a winter formal dress at the mall back in town, so we thought it would be a good idea to come here and look." Ellie told them. "But that plan is sort of failing."  
  
"Oh, shopping...Yuck." Nick teased them.   
  
Kate rolled her eyes. "For you it is..."  
  
"I think there is a nice formal shop down by that shoe store...Its called like, 'Emma's Formal Wear' or something...You should go check that out next." Nick told them.   
  
Ellie gave him a confused look. "How would you know if it a nice formal shop?"  
  
Nick looked at her a second. "What...NO!" He exclaimed. "I just saw a commerical for it."   
  
Ellie laughed. "Nick, you know I love you." She said.   
  
Nick smiled at her. "I know, everybody loves Nick."  
  
After they were done with lunch, Nick and Travis walked down with them, saying that they were just going to see what else was in the mall.   
  
"You two want to come into the shop with us?" Kate asked. "Since you just love to shop so much."  
  
Travis shook his head. "Nah, but we'll be around. See you guys later." The boys then walked off, Ellie noticed Nick kick Travis as they were walking off.   
  
"That was a nice treat." Ellie said as they began to look at the dresses, which were all quite pretty.  
  
"Oh yeah." Miranda said. "Travis so likes you Ellie. Too bad he already asked Erin Moore to the dance." She then stopped and looked like she wanted to kick herself.   
  
Ellie looked a bit disappointed. "Oh well, his lose." She said, putting on a brave face. She knew Travis was going with someone else, but she hated thinking about it.  
  
"Ellie, come look at these!" Kate called from around the corner.   
  
Ellie went to go see what Kate was looking at. "Oh my gosh, these are nice." She said as she began to look through the rack. She had picked up two, a sheevled black dress, and a white strapless one into the dressing room. She walked out of the dressing room in the white one.   
  
"It looks good Ellie." Miranda told her, who was sitting on the couch by the dressing rooms with Kate.   
  
"It really does." Kate said.   
  
Ellie looked at herself in the big mirror. "I don't know...I think it makes me look like...I don't know...I just don't like it." She then turned back to her friends. "Wait." She then went over to another rack close by, and came back with a dress in her hand.   
  
"I think she found a good one." Miranda said, Kate nodded.   
  
Ellie came back out a few minutes later. She was wearing a dark green, strapless dress, around the bust line, there were small diamonds in interesting patterns. "I like this one." She said with a smile, looking at herself in the mirror.   
  
"Wow, Ellie, it looks really good." Miranda said.   
  
"Yeah, I totally think that you should buy that one." Kate told her.   
  
Ellie twirled around. "Yep, this is the one!" She then went back into the dressing room and changed back into her own clothes. They then payed for the dress, and left the store.   
  
"I found a pretty dress, and it didn't cost three hundred dollars!" Ellie said very excited.   
"It looks great on you too." Kate told her.   
  
"I can't wait until Saturday night." Ellie said with a smile.   
  
"I say we check out the Gap and see if there is any last minute shopping to do." Miranda said.   
  
"Okay." Ellie and Kate agreed. They then went into the Gap, and were surprised to see Travis and Nick in there.   
  
"Has hell frozen over and boys are now shopping?" Ellie teased as they walked over to the boys.   
  
"Haha...Very funny." Nick mocked. "We just need new shirts for the dance this Saturday."   
  
"Oh...Well, there a few cute shirts over here..." Kate told Nick. "Come on Miranda, lets help Nick shop."  
  
Miranda looked a little confused. "Oh yeah, Nick needs lots of help shopping." The three then walked off, leaving Travis and Ellie all alone.   
  
"So, how is the search for a dress going?" Travis asked a few moments later.   
  
"Good, I just bought one actually." Ellie told him as she began to flip through the rack of collared shirts.   
  
"Thats cool." Travis said, he then seemed to be hesitating a bit. "So are you going with anyone?"   
  
"Nope. I'm going stag." Ellie said. "You're going with Erin Moore, right?"  
  
Travis shook his head. "No, someone started that rumor. I don't even like Erin." He told her.   
  
Ellie was sort of realived. "So then who are you going with..."  
  
"Well, no one really." Travis said. "But...I was wondering, since you aren't going with anyone, and I am not going with anyone...Why don't we go together...You know."  
  
Ellie was overcome with joy and wanted to jump up and down screaming. But she just smiled and said, "Yeah, I think that would be fun."  
  
Travis's eyes lit up. "Really?" Ellie nodded. "Oh my gosh awesome!"   
  
"Wait...I promised Miranda that we would go stag together..." Ellie suddenly remembered.   
  
"Really? Miranda doesn't have a date?" Travis asked surprised. "Thats great!" He then noticed the look on Ellie's face. "No, I mean Nick wanted to ask Miranda, but he thought she was already going with someone else."   
  
"Cool. I guess this is going to work out for everyone." Ellie smiled.   
  
Travis smiled. "So, I'll call you this week and we will work out the details later. And I'll tell Nick to call Miranda." He said.   
  
"Here's my cell phone number." Ellie said as she pulled a pen out of her purse and wrote her nmber on his hand. "I'll talk to you later."  
  
"Sure thing." Travis said as she watched Ellie turn and walk away.  
  
The girls left the mall at 1:00 exactly. Kate and Miranda were itching to find out why Ellie was so happy. The got into the car and put their seatbelts on.   
  
Ellie was about to turn the car on when she screamed.   
  
"What?" Miranda asked a little worried.   
  
"Travis asked me to the dance!" Ellie exclaimed. "He said that he never asked Erin, somebody just started the rumor."  
  
"OMG, thats awesome!" Kate said with a smile.   
  
Miranda smiled weakly. "Thats great. But now I am the only girl without a date."   
  
"I think someone is going to ask you though." Ellie said with a smirk.   
  
Miranda looked at Ellie. "Huh?"  
  
"Nothing." Ellie said as she turned the car on and then left the parking lot. They had fun on the ride home, and got back just in time for Ellie to drop the girls off at Kate's, and then get to the ice rink. It was a prefect day.  
  
***********************************************  
  
Miranda ran over to Ellie in the hall on Wednesday and jumped on her. "Nick asked me to formal!" She exclaimed. "How did you know?"  
  
"Travis told me yesterday when he asked me to the dance." Ellie told her. "But thats awesome. We all have dates."   
  
"Oh yeah." Miranda smiled. "And who knew? We actually got away with cutting class yesterday."   
  
"We should definately do it again." Ellie said.   
  
"Oh yeah." Miranda smiled.   
  
**********************************************  
  
Ellie sat in her room doing her homework when her cell phone rang. "Hey." She said.   
  
"Ellie? Its Lizzie." She said, sounding a little upset.   
  
"Lizzie, whats wrong?" Ellie asked, putting her book down.  
  
Lizzie seemed to be blowing her nose. "I don't have a date for formal."   
  
"I thought you and Gordo were going together." Ellie said.   
  
"No, his uncle did...They have to go Seattle this weekend for the funeral." Lizzie said. "I mean, I'm sorry that his uncle died and all, but still...I was looking forward to it so much."  
  
"Yeah, I know how you feel." Ellie told her.   
  
"You have no idea how hard it was to act like I didn't care when he told me." Lizzie sobbed.   
  
Ellie thought a minute. "Um, if you want to go to the dance with someone, Ethan doesn't have a date. And I'm sure he wouldn't mind going to the dance with you just as friends." Ellie offered. "I'll ask him tonight."  
  
"Will you really do that for me?" Lizzie asked.   
  
"Of course." Ellie said. They then continued to talk until Lizzie was at least laughing again, and then Ellie went to go talk to Ethan.   
  
**********************************************  
  
The next day at school, Ethan went over to Lizzie in their first period class.   
  
"Hey Lizzie. Wanna go to the formal with me?" Ethan asked. "I know it is last notice, but I think it would be cool to go together."  
  
Lizzie smiled. "I'd love to go to the dance with you Ethan."   
  
"Awesome." Ethan smiled. "I'll call you later."  
  
Miranda leaned over to Lizzie. "You have been waiting for this day since eighth grade, why are you not jumping up and down?" She asked.   
  
"Because, I'm dating Gordo now." Lizzie said. "Funny how things like that change."  
  
"Yeah, but lets just pretend we are still in eighth grade." Miranda said.   
  
"Um...Lets not." Lizzie said with a laugh.  
  
That day, the girls couldn't help notice that Ethan, Shawn, Nick and Travis were hanging around each other, and seemed to be in serious thought. They wondered what they could possibly be talking about, but they would soon find out.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
What happens at winter formal? What are all the boys planning? Is it good or bad? Is the night a total drag, or the best night ever? Review and I will post the next chapter soon.   
  
Oh yeah, and just incase you are wondering...No the girls will not be getting in trouble for ditching school. I am so tired of watching all those shows were kids ditch class and then some how get caught. Cause there are a bunch of times I cut class and don't get caught. So I thought I would put a twist on shortlines like that. :) 


	18. Winter Formal

Hey guys. Yeah...I know it has been a while since I last posted another chapter. But here it is. Yep. Expect another one real soon though because I want to get this story done by April 11. Which was when I first started the story.   
  
Anyway, I just thought I would take the time to tell you why I have not updated in so long. Well, it was the post that 'xcdiva' posted that my story was like a Degrassi/Lizzie McGuire crossover because of MY character Ellie. Ellie was a character made up from my mind and I began to think that my character had been stolen for the show Degrassi. I still think that (and let me tell you, the thought that someone took my character, changed her around, and then put her on some TV show, is not a very good feeling)...But I wanted to finish the story. I mean, it would be cruel to just drop the story right when it was getting to the good part.   
  
I'm not trying to personally attack anyone. But if someone actually did steal my character Ellie for that middle school sitcom...I just have one thing to say to them...*That was so wrong, and bad. What kind of person does that? Takes ideas from young writers so that they don't even want to finish the story...You must have no conscience. You lost so many cool points. And I hope you are happy with yourself, because I think you are scum.* Yea...Now thats off my chest. I feel a lot better. Sort of.  
  
But as for what xcdiva said. Ellie is mine. I started this story over a year ago (Ellie appeared on the show in the fall of 2002, doesn't that say something? To me it sure does) and there is in no way shape or form a Degrassi/Lizzie McGuire crossover. I just wanted to get that straight.   
  
So as for the disclaimer. I do not own any characters on the Lizzie McGuire show. Ellie is MINE. Travis is MINE. Shawn is MINE. Nick is MINE. All other characters not usually on the show are MINE. Do not use them without MY permission.   
  
Well...Now that is all out. Enjoy the chapter!  
  
********************************************  
  
On Saturday afternoon at exactly 2:30, Lizzie stood outside of Ellie's house carrying everything she needed to get ready to go to the dance, as well as a bag full of overnight stuff. They weren't going to get home until late and so Lizzie was just going to spend the night at Ellie's house.  
  
About twenty seconds later, Ellie came to the door, wearing sweat pants and a baby tee, with her hair up in a clip.   
  
"Hey Lizzie, come on in. We have so much to do within the next two and a half hours." She said.   
  
Lizzie came in and shut the door behind her. "Yes, busy busy...And even then we probably will not be completely ready for 5:00."  
  
"4:45 actually. Thats when Travis is going to be here, and my parents want to take pictures." Ellie said as they began to walk up the stairs to Ellie's room.   
  
"Oh yeah. Pictures...I forgot." Lizzie said, rolling her eyes and laughing a bit.   
  
"Yeah, we just have to look extra beautiful for them." Ellie said.   
  
Lizzie threw her stuff down on Ellie's bed. "Yeah, and extra beautiful for Travis."   
  
Ellie rolled her eyes. "We're just friends Lizzie." She said.   
  
"Yeah, and Claire is just the meaniest girl in school." Lizzie said. "You got it bad for him girl."   
  
Ellie took her hair down and picked up her brush. "I don't..." She said.   
  
"Whatever." Lizza rolled her eyes. "But anyway, come on much work is to be done."  
  
For the two hours, the girls did each other's hair and make-up and then finally put their dresses on and did a final inspection.  
  
Ellie ran her fingers through her hair as she looked down at her dress, it was a prefect fit for her and made her look really pretty. Lizzie had done her hair so that it was curled, and Lizzie had done a braid across the front part of her hair. Her make-up was just the natural look, which worked well. It was what Ellie was used to wearing. And of course topped off with some big hoop earrings.   
  
Lizzie had on her light blue dress, which was backless and it came up around her neck to be hooked. It was as long as Ellie's was, and it had a trim of silver on the bottom and around the neck part. Ellie had down her make-up in a silverish theme, her eyes had silver liner with blue shimmer and a silverish gloss on her lips. Her hair was braided in the front, secured with bobby pins and then put up into a high ponytail. She decided against the idea of hoops, so she just put in her fake diamonds earrings.   
  
Lizzie was looking in the full length mirror checking out every detail. "You know what? I think that this is the cutest that we have ever looked." She said, inmating Romy from the movie 'Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion' which was one of her favorite movies.   
  
Ellie came over and joined in. "Oh me too." She said.   
  
"You know what? Its nice that we are such good friends that we can give each other complements like that and not sound consident." Lizzie said.   
  
"Oh yeah...Me too." Ellie said. ((*A/N: I know that is off...But I don't have the movie at home right now so whatever. If you haven't seen the movie go see it...Good laughs*))  
  
Lizzie giggled. "Come on, Travis will be here any minute." She said picking up her purse and then linking arms with Ellie. "Oh this wonderful...I know that date isn't going to be late."  
  
Ellie laughed. "Oh if I know Ethan, he is going to take forever. He is probably still trying to get his hair prefect." She said pulling her purse off the coat rack in her room as they then left to go wait downstairs.  
  
They got downstairs and saw Ellie's parents standing there with the camera. "Wait girls! We need a picture of you coming down the stairs. Just stand there a moment." Mrs. Craft said.   
  
Ellie and Lizzie stopped and smiled for the camera. "The first of five hundred pictures." Ellie said through her smiling mouth.  
  
"Oh I know." Lizzie said as the doorbell rang.   
  
Mr. Craft opened it and it turned out to be Mr. and Mrs. McGuire with a camera of their own.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me..." Lizzie said to Ellie. She then continued down the stairs to greet her parents. "Mom...Dad, what are you doing here?"  
  
"Oh honey, I had to see what you looked like in your dress and with your hair done. I couldn't just see pictures." Mrs. Mcguire said.   
  
"And believe me, we have enough film to take a hundred pictures." Mr. McGuire added.   
  
"Oh...Thats great." Lizzie said with a 'oh dear God' look on her face.  
  
Ethan then came running down the stairs. "Hey everyone. I figured it was getting to be picture time and I was right." He said. He then looked at Lizzie. "Lizzie, Lizzie...Might I say that you are looking..." He began to say 'hot' but remember his parents, as well as Lizzie's parents were in the room. "Very nice." he said.   
  
"Thank you Ethan." Lizzie said. "I have to say the same thing about you."  
  
" Nowcome on...Lizzie you go up the stairs and Ethan wait at the bottom for her. That will be such a cute picture." Mrs. McGuire said.   
  
Lizzie smiled faintly, but walked back up the stairs in her heels for the picture. After about ten pictures were taken of Lizzie and Ethan. Ellie and Ethan had a couple of twin shots. Then the doorbell rang.   
  
"Travis...Come on in." Mr. Craft said happily motioning for Travis to come in the door.   
  
Travis smiled and shook Mr. Craft's hand. "Its nice to see you again Mr. Craft." He then looked at the other parents, he was such a gentlemen around adults. "Mrs. Craft, Mrs. McGuire, Mr. McGuire, it is very nice to see you this evening." He then looked over at Ellie.   
  
"Hey Travis." Ellie said with a big smile.   
  
Travis looked like he didn't know what to say for a moment. But then snapped out of it, then gave a shy grin. "Hey Ellie. May I say that your dress looks very lovely."  
  
"Well thank you." Ellie said.   
  
"Now come on, the boys have to pretend they are just getting here for the picture." Mr. Craft said.   
  
After several staged pictures, and then pictures inside, and outside the parents finally agreed the kids had enough and let them go.  
  
"Thank you." Ellie breath a sigh of relief once she heard the news.  
  
"Now, we must go get in the car." Travis said. "Now its nothing special...But you know its our ride."  
  
Lizzie just smiled. "As long as we get there. Thats all that matters." She said.   
  
The girls linked arms with their dates and they walked around to the front of the house where there was a big black car in the front.   
  
"You got a LIMO!" They exclaimed that the same time.   
  
Travis and Ethan laughed at the girls facial expressions.   
  
"We knew you would like it." Ethan said.   
  
Just then, Miranda and Kate jumped out of the limo and ran over to them with Nick and Shawn got out behind giving their friends the thumbs up signal.  
  
"Can you believe it!" Kate exclaimed as she approached them. She had a spaghetti strapped dress which was about ten shades of pink, it looked really pretty with her hair and make-up all done.   
  
"I thought we were just riding over in cars! But this is awesome." Ellie exclaimed.   
  
"I know, come on and see the inside." Miranda said. She had gotten a dark red strapless dress with black lining over it and as always found something interesting to do with her hair.  
  
After the girls went through the limo they jumped back out, knowing their was one more round of pictures to be taken. All four couples in front of the limo, then each indivual couple, and then the guys opening the door for their date. Finally they were off to the Olive Garden for dinner. Then to the school gym for the dance.   
  
It seemed like their were about fifty limos in front of them. But they finally got out and went into the gym.   
  
Nick and Miranda went straight to the dance floor, while everyone else stood around for a minute. Then got on the dance floor.   
  
Lizzie leaned over to Miranda a few minutes later and said, "I guess somethings never change." She then pointed to Ethan who was doing his usual dancing. ((*a/n: It is so freakin' funny in the show when he dances! Who agrees with me?*))  
  
Miranda laughed. "I guess that Ellie was the twin who was given all the grace."   
  
"Come on now Lizzie!" Ethan said grabbing her hand. "I'd feel a little silly dancing out here all by myself."  
  
Lizzie then began to dance with Ethan again. Trying to avoid his random arm movements.  
  
"Hey watch it!"   
  
"You ruined my hair!"   
  
"You stepped on my foot!"   
  
Those were just some of the things in which Ethan and Lizzie were having people yell at them all night.   
  
"People are just jealous that they don't have the moves." Ethan told her.   
  
Lizzie laughed. But didn't say anything.   
  
After dancing for about a half hour, Ellie and Kate went to go get drinks with Ethan and Nick following, as Travis danced with Lizzie, and Shawn danced with Miranda.   
  
"Hey Ellie." They heard someone behind them with a real sticky voice. Both girls turned around, it was Claire, along with Mary and Beth; her new 'popular' best friends.  
  
Ellie smiled lightly. "Hey Claire. Whats up?" She asked, trying not to sound too fake.  
  
"Oh nothing much." Claire said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "So, don't you think that I'll look so good with that crown on my head?"  
  
Ellie's just looked at her as though to say, 'Don't get too full of yourself'. "We won't know who won for about an hour." She reminded Claire, who's dress was tight it looked like she would pop out of it.   
  
"Yeah I know. But you know, it is just a dead give-away that I am going to be the one who wins. Along with Travis." She said. "Oh won't it be great. Me standing up on the stage, along side your date, Ellie?"  
  
Before Ellie could open her mouth to say anything, the three turned and walked away. Ellie shook her head.   
  
"Forget her Elle..." Kate said, noticing the glare in her eyes. "By getting mad, you'll just be giving Claire what she wants."  
  
Ellie shrugged. "Yeah, I know." She sighed.   
  
Ethan watched Claire talk to Ellie like that. "I can't believe I used to hang out with such a snob." He thought to himself.   
  
When Claire turned around, she practically ran into Ethan. But instead of Claire yelling at him, she just smiled.   
  
"Hey Ethan. Listen, there is a party going on after the dance. Would you like to come and have some, fun?" She asked.   
  
Ethan just looked at her and shook his head. "No thanks, I have plans." He told her smoothly.   
  
Claire looked at him in shook. "Fine." She then walked off with her posse.   
  
Nick looked at Ethan. "You can go if you want to you know." He said.   
  
Ethan just shrugged. "Nah, its much more fun to hang with you guys then the whole popular group." He said.   
  
The four went back out on the dance floor about ten minutes later. They were all having a great time, but then Ellie couldn't help but think about who was going to win Ice Princess from the junior class. She didn't exactly want to win, she just wanted Claire to lose.  
  
"Alright guys, its time to slow it down." The DJ said. "So grab your dates and enjoy this next song."   
  
It seemed as though all the guys in the room tensed up before going to find their dates as "Somewhere Out There" by Our Lady Peace came on.   
  
"So Lizzie, may I have this dance?" Ethan asked as he held out his hand to her.   
  
Lizzie smiled and took his hand. "Of course." She said.   
  
Ethan put his hands on Lizzie's waist as she put her hands around his neck. Neither said anything for a few minutes, but about a million things were running through Lizzie's head.   
  
"Okay, I have waited to dance with Ethan for about four years! Why aren't I happy?" Lizzie thought to herself. "Maybe because you have finally moved on."   
  
"I can't believe I was such an idiot for so long and told Lizzie I just wanted to be friends?" Ethan thought. "I thought my type was the cheerleaders and popular girls, but thats not it. Lizzie is prefect. How could I not see that?"  
  
The two danced, and thought the rest of the time. Debating whether to say something to one another.   
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Travis came over to Ellie after a few moments of hesitation. "Hey Ellie, do you want to dance?" He asked.  
  
"I would love to." Ellie replied. The two then began to dance cheek to cheek. Just rocking back and forth to the music. Finally Travis spoke up.   
  
"So, when are you leaving for Turin?" He asked.   
  
Ellie was caught off guard. Okay, it was pretty nice and romantic for a moment, and then he asks her about the one thing she didn't want to talk about for the night. "Next Monday, really early in the morning. Why?"  
  
"Well, you know...I was just wondering if next Saturday you would like to go and catch a movie and maybe get dinner afterwards." Travis said.   
  
Ellie stopped rocking to the beat and looked at Travis. "Are you asking me out?" She asked.   
  
Travis looked back at her. "Well, it depends on your answer..."  
  
Ellie just smiled. "I would love to go out on a date with you this weekend." She said.   
  
Travis smiled back. "Great."   
  
Ellie smiled and looked around at all her friends. Each were dancing with their dates, and seemed to be having a great time. She never thought she would have such an awesome group of friends, but then she never thought that she would win a National title about ten minutes after getting the wind knocked out of her. Everything that she had always wanted was becoming reality, maybe moving to Hildridge was for the best after all.  
  
The song came to an end, and then everyone went back to dancing to the techno remixs of pop songs. Ellie danced, but at the same time thought of new programs in her head as she moved to the music.   
  
Finally the DJ turned off the music and then leaned closer to the microphone. "Okay guys, and now the moment in which everyone has been waiting for...Its time to announce the Ice Royalties!"  
  
Everyone in the gym looked up and clapped. Ellie had butterflies in her stomach as she stood there. They announced the Freshman and Sophomore royality. Then it was time for the Junior class.   
  
"Okay, and now...The Ice Prince for the Junior class are..." The DJ said, into the microphone. "Travis Reynolds!"  
  
Travis smiled and ran up onto the stage. He was trying to get everyone to cheer louder and chant 'Travis'.   
  
"Calm down now..." The DJ told them. "And now the Ice Princess, in the closest vote ever in Winter Formal history..."  
  
Ellie saw Claire already walking up to the stage. She just closed her eyes, and waited for the moment to pass. Claire was going to stand up there with Travis, not her. Why did she come anyway?  
  
"Ellen Craft!" The DJ announced.   
  
Everyone began appaulding again. Ellie opened her eyes and saw everyone around her cheering around her.   
  
"Did he just say my name?" Ellie leaned over and asked Miranda.  
  
Miranda laughed. "Yeah. Now come on girl, get up there!" She said as then gave Ellie a bit of the push towards the stage.  
  
Ellie smiled, and then ran up the steps onto the stage and hugged Travis.   
  
"We're number one!" Travis said to her.   
  
Ellie barely heard him through all the appaulding that was going on in front of them. But she smiled at him, and he smiled back as Mrs. Thomas, the school's vice principal came over and placed crowns on their heads and handed Ellie flowers.   
  
"Come y'all!" Travis yelled as he pumped his arms up to get everyone even louder than they already were.   
  
"Mr. Melrose stop that!" Mrs. Thomas demanded.   
  
Ellie laughed as Travis then stopped and began to ask all innocent. They stood there, while the other royalities were announced. She looked down and noticed that Claire was standing with her posse. Her arms were folded and she looked pissed. She wanted too laugh, because it wasn't everyday that Claire got pissed off. Wait, actually yes...Yes it was everyday that happened.  
  
After the royalities were announced, the five couples got to dance in the center of the gym to some weird 80's music, which threw everyone off.   
  
After another hour of dancing, and talking, and good times. The dance was over. It was 11:30, and the night was still young. The whole group of eight found their limo and began to debate what they should do.  
  
"Lets go to the movies." Kate suggested.   
  
"Nah...There's nothing good in theaters right now, and we only have the limo until 1:00 am." Nick said.   
  
"Um...Lets go get ice cream." Lizzie said.   
  
"And lets go bowling!" Travis exclaimed.  
  
Miranda laughed. "Yeah right. Eight teenagers in formal wear in a bowling alley." She said. "That looks normal."  
  
"And thats the fun of it!" Travis said.   
  
"I like the idea." Ethan chimed in.   
  
"Yeah, me too actually." Kate said.   
  
Shawn laughed. "Now come on girls. If Kate actually wants to, you have to come too."  
  
Ellie laughed. "Okay...Lets go bowling, and then for ice cream."   
  
They told the driver to take then to the bowling alley downtown. They got out of the limo and then went into the alley. All the people who were already there, seemed to be staring at them. But then, who wouldn't stare at a group like them, all dressed in formal clothing and in bowling shoes. ((*a/n: Don't you think that would be the coolest thing to do after a formal dance! I sure do!*))  
  
The night soon came to a close and everyone was dropped off to go home. Nick, Shawn and Miranda got out at Kate's house, and then Lizzie and Travis got out as they came up to Ellie and Ethan's house.   
  
"You know...I really had a nice time tonight." Ethan said to Lizzie as they walked up the front steps to their house and sat on the porch swing.   
  
"I did too Ethan...Thanks for taking me." Lizzie said. "I have to say, you were the most popular guy out on the dance floor night."  
  
"Was I?" Ethan asked.   
  
Lizzie laughed. It was obvisous that Ethan hadn't heard all the death threats from everyone around them that night. "You sure were."   
  
Ethan took a deep breath. "Listen, Lizzie...I know back in eighth grade I told you I didn't think you were my type. But now, I...I mean...Whats I'm trying to say is..." He stuttered. "Would you like to go on a real date sometime?"  
  
Lizzie sighed. "Ethan, I'd love to...But it would only be as friends." She said. "I mean, I guess our timing is off. I would have loved to go out with you three years ago, but now...I think of you more as a friend, and Ellie's brother." She felt bad, knowing that Ethan's heart had probably just been ripped out. "I'm really sorry."  
  
Ethan just shrugged to play it off cool. "Its alright. I mean, I guess you are right...Our timing is off. But its okay." He said.   
  
"But lets say that the next dance...We can go together." Lizzie said. "I don't think I could find a better dance partner."  
  
Ethan halfway smiled. "Its a date." He said.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
After Ellie said goodnight to Travis and went up to her room, since her parents were already in bed. She went over to her window just in time to see Travis get in his car and drive off. Aw, it was a great night.  
  
Ellie heard her door open, and turned to see Lizzie standing there. "Lizzie! That was the night of my life!" Ellie squealed as she shut the dor.   
  
Lizzie smiled. "You thought that tonight was great. Just wait until..." She then paused. "Never mind."  
  
"Wait until what?" Ellie asked.   
  
"Nothing." Lizzie said as she sat down in Ellie's butterfly chair.   
  
"Lizzie McGuire. If you don't tell me you are going to wake up tomorrow with blue hair." Ellie playfully threatened.   
  
Lizzie shrugged. "Blue is my favorite color." She said.   
  
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Anyway...I have a date with Travis next week!" She said.   
  
Lizzie smiled. "I knew it. You liked him."  
  
"I'm falling for him." Ellie finally confessed.   
  
"I knew it!" Lizzie exclaimed.   
  
Ellie blushed. The girls continued to talk about their night and gossip about everything that had happened that night. Eventually they went to sleep at about 4:30.   
  
Ellie woke up the next morning. She was still glowing about the night before. But she couldn't help what Lizzie had began to say the night before. What was she planning?   
  
******************************************  
  
What is Lizzie/everyone else planning? I will update very soon. I will have this story done by April 11th if it kills me! I promise. So tell me what you think.   
  
Hope you liked it. The Olympic chapter is next! So review review review! And have a nice day.   
  
And if my note at the top of the page offended anyone. I am sorry. But I just didn't want it to go unsaid.   
  
~Liza Jane 


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